James Gunn has explained why The Suicide Squad resembles a great shark instead of a hammerhead. King Shark has become a major player in the pages of DC comics since his introduction in 1994 and has fought foes ranging from Superboy to Aquaman. While he was originally portrayed as a great white shark when the New 52 launched in 2011, King Shark was redesigned to resemble a hammerhead shark, which has stayed throughout DC Rebirth.

King Shark has been a staple of The Suicide Squad lineup for years and has been a fan-favorite member of the team. He was originally considered for the 2016 film, but David Ayer decided on Killer Croc instead due to the amount of CGI that would have been required to visualize King Shark properly. King Shark has since been added to Gunn's film and will be voiced by Academy Award nominee Sylvester Stallone.

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Gunn took to Twitter to explain his reasoning behind making King Shark a great white as opposed to the hammerhead design. While he originally considered making King Shark a hammerhead, he realized it would be difficult to film scenes with him looking at other people or having interactions with them given the placement of the eyes. Gunn did express his love for the hammerhead design and said:

King Shark has been adapted into a number of properties, and despite the hammerhead design being his design for the past ten years in the comics, most adaptations maintain the original great white shark appearance. King Shark has been a recurring enemy on the CW series, The Flash, voiced by David Hayter. Ron Funches voices a more kind-hearted yet still brutal comedic take on the character in the Harley Quinn animated series, and King Shark will appear in his great white form in the upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League video game.

Gunn's decision speaks to the nature of adaptations and how something that may work in the pages of a comic book presents a problem on screen. Comic book fans have been watching filmmakers make changes and tweaks to characters since superhero movies first started. Sometimes these changes are well received, like Jason Momoa's Aquaman not resembling the comic book counterpart, while other changes elicit a more negative response like turning Galactus into a cloud in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Gunn's choice to visualize King Shark as a great white may not be the current comic book look for the character; however, it still pays respect to previous designs and creates a version of the character that works within the world of The Suicide Squad and the story he is telling.

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Source: James Gunn/Twitter

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