It’s now become a running joke that The Suicide Squad should feature obscure DC villain Condiment King. James Gunn explains why it doesn’t.
James Gunn explains the real reason why he didn’t include obscure DC villain Condiment King in The Suicide Squad. After months and months of anticipation, The Suicide Squad will debut in theaters and on HBO Max this coming week. Guardians of the Galaxy director Gunn made the jump from Marvel to DC for the eccentric flick, which is giving him some of the best reviews of his career. The Suicide Squad currently boasts a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, and excitement among audiences is reaching a fever pitch.
For the movie, which is a cross between a sequel to the 2016 Suicide Squad and a reboot, Gunn has assembled a wild mix of comic book villains. While some characters will be very familiar to fans, like Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), The Suicide Squad is largely comprised of oddballs. For example, the new Task Force X counts people like Weasel (Sean Gunn) and Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) among its ranks, and it’s definitely safe to say they aren’t characters one would expect in a standard superhero movie.
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Related: The Suicide Squad Theory: The 7 Characters Who Die In James Gunn’s Sequel
Not included in The Suicide Squad is the Batman villain Condiment King, something that has become a bit of a running joke online. Gunn recently sat down with BBC Radio 1 to promote The Suicide Squad and explained why he didn’t bring in Condiment King (via ComicBook.com). It largely comes down to how he was created, which differs from the similarly silly Polka-Dot Man. Gunn explained:
“Here’s the difference. Polka-Dot Man was a sincere character. Somebody was writing Polka-Dot Man and they’re like, ‘This is a new Batman villain that we’re creating named Polka-Dot Man.’ He was sincerely created. Condiment King is a joke, they created him as a joke. Like, ‘Oh, here’s a stupid character.’ I don’t care about Condiment King.”
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Gunn has been confronted about not including Condiment King in The Suicide Squad before, most notably from comedian Chris Killian who dressed up as the character online. While one might argue that Condiment King would match the weirdness of the film, Gunn’s explanation for not bringing him in makes sense. It’s hard to find true depth in someone who was explicitly created as a joke, so there’s a good chance the character would only be around for comedic relief. And while that is far from a bad thing, it’s clear Gunn wanted to humanize these strange, morally dubious characters when making The Suicide Squad.
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Should a sequel ever get made, perhaps Gunn can fit in a shoutout for the surprisingly popular Condiment King. As it stands, the Condiment King might even be lucky to have not been included in The Suicide Squad. Gunn has emphasized time and time again that the movie holds a high body count, and that no one is safe. While Condiment King isn’t a part of Task Force X, he also gets to live another day in the DCEU. That’s a small, but genuine victory.
More: How The Suicide Squad’s RT Score Is Already Different From Past DCEU Movies
Source: BBC Radio 1 (via ComicBook.com)
- The Suicide Squad (2021)Release date: Aug 06, 2021
- The Batman (2022)Release date: Mar 04, 2022
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- The Flash (2022)Release date: Nov 04, 2022
- Aquaman 2 (2022)Release date: Dec 16, 2022
- Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)Release date: Jun 02, 2023
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About The Author 
Rachel Labonte (2360 Articles Published)
Rachel LaBonte is a news, feature, and movie review writer for Screen Rant with a deep passion for film and television. A graduate of Emerson College, she majored in Media Arts Production while specializing in screenwriting. She’s been a writer ever since high school when she realized she was rather good at it and joined as many entertainment news clubs as she could while in school. Most notably, she wrote for Emerson’s website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson’s student awards) for Best Review. Her deep love of movies led to her working at a movie theater for five years, which she loved despite the angry customers. An avid reader who constantly buys books before reading the ones she already owns, Rachel is a huge fan of superheroes (especially of the Marvel variety) and wizards and will likely never be able to catch up on all the movies/TV shows she longs to watch.
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