The first footage for James Gunn's The Suicide Squad secretly confirmed who Nathan Fillion’s character is. Unlike the majority of the characters included in that DC FanDome first look, Fillion's precise identity has been kept under wraps, with only the acronym TDK and his logo revealed. But a deeper look may actually reveal the truth.
Fillion is one of a host of new actors added to Gunn's part-sequel, part-reboot alongside original castmembers Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, Viola Davis, and Joel Kinnaman. His appearance marks the fifth time he's worked with Gunn (including his cut cameo as Simon Williams in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) on movies and while he has long been a fan favorite suggestion to play comic book characters (like Green Lantern), his The Suicide Squad character's link to comics wasn't entirely clear. Some speculation had thrown up possibilities and the TDK monicker was obviously intended at least partly to poke fun at The Dark Knight.
But thanks to some further inspection of the footage out of DC FanDome, it seems Fillion's Suicide Squad sequel character was confirmed in the background, in the same way that Starro's role in the movie was also hidden in plain sight. And the reveal seems to confirm that Fillion is playing the character he was rumored to be long before his name was revealed - or at least that he's playing a spin-off of comic book character Arm-Fall-Off-Boy.
The reveal comes courtesy of Gunn's behind-the-scenes trailer that revealed some more insight into each of his new characters, though actually spotting it wouldn't have been easy. At the start of the Suicide Squad sequel footage, during the really quick flashes of scenes, there is a series of Polaroid-style images and a couple of them show a disembodied arm either flying or being thrown through the air. The colors of the sleeve confirm it to be Fillion's character and other shots seem to also show Fillion himself during what appears to be the assault on the beaches.
In the comics, the original version of the character Nathan Fillion's TDK is based on was known as Arm-Fall-Off-Boy, who attempted to try out for the Legion of Super-Heroes but was rejected. His power was limited to detaching his own limbs and using them as blunt weapons, which was apparently a result of him carelessly holding anti-gravity metal Element 152 too long (at least according to Matter-Eater Lad). He was reimagined Post-Zero Hour and renamed Splitter, retaining his powers and his unsuitability as a hero tryout.
The film version, it seems, will be called The Detachment Kid rather than either of his original names, presumably both to riff on The Dark Knight but more importantly to hide his gimmick for a cool gross-out reveal in the final film. Or at least that would have been the case had the FanDome footage not spoiled it. The fact that he's far from The Suicide Squad's strangest new character says a lot and given the fact that he's set to face-off against new DCEU villain Starro, it's hard to see him coming through unscathed.
