Warner Bros. and DC's The Suicide Squad concluded with a climactic showdown between the surviving members of Task Force X and Starro. However, director James Gunn revealed that he initially considered using a different DC Comics character as the primary antagonist: Superman.
Based on the comic book villain of the same name, Starro's appearance in the final act of The Suicide Squad marked the first time the giant alien lifeform had appeared in a live-action feature film. Much like his comic book counterpart, the film version of the character resembles a starfish with a single central eye and possesses the ability to create miniature duplicates of himself, each capable of attaching themselves to the faces of hosts and placing them under Starro's control.
While these abilities made Starro a formidable foe for The Suicide Squad, Gunn confirmed to the Script Apart podcast that he thought of using Superman as the main villain of the film at first because he believed it would make for an interesting story. However, he ultimately selected Starro as the primary baddie because he felt the giant starfish would be a better adversary for the team to fight. Gunn, noting that he loved the character from the comics, explained that Starro is the perfect villain because he is both ridiculous in concept while also being terrifying. In fact, as a child, Gunn was scared by Starro because the idea of being controlled by the face-hugging miniature Starros horrified the future filmmaker.
Part of Gunn's decision to use Starro as the main adversary of The Suicide Squad stemmed from his belief that a DC Comics villain as bizarre as an alien starfish would never be used in a live-action film, and if he was, it wouldn't be a comic-accurate depiction of the gargantuan pink kaiju. However, Gunn also chose to scrap the Superman idea because, at the time, there were still some questions as to who the Man of Steel was in the DCEU and whether or not The Suicide Squad was set in the same universe to begin with. So, Gunn decided to go with Starro instead in order to avoid dealing with the confusion and focus on telling a good story.
Interestingly, the concept of using Superman as the main antagonist in The Suicide Squad is similar to a jettisoned storyline that was intended to introduce Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam to the DCEU. During the early stages of development on a Suicide Squad sequel, when Gavin O'Connor was attached as a writer and potential director, the storyline for the film was said to involve the supervillain team tracking down a weapon of mass destruction that would turn out to be Black Adam, a concept that was abandoned after O'Connor left the project.
Of course, fans would argue that Starro is the perfect villain for the famously weird and over-the-top filmmaking style of Gunn. Besides, the Knightmare sequence in Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice may have provided more than enough evil Superman for some fans.
The Suicide Squad is now playing in theaters and on HBO Max.
Source: Script Apart