When we first learned the names of the characters James Gunn was planning to introduce as new members of Task Force X, Polka-Dot Man stood out as one of the more bizarre choices. Debuting as a minor Batman villain back in the '60s, Abner Krill has always been treated as something of a punchline by comic book fans, and it seems that's the main reason Gunn decided to utilize him for The Suicide Squad!
While speaking to Total Film, Gunn revealed that the addition of Polka-Dot Man came about when he realized he wanted to introduce a character who's generally thought of as "one of the dumbest ever."
“So I went and looked online, ‘Who’s the dumbest DC character of all time?’ and it was Polka-Dot Man. We’ve turned that character who’s a sad, pathetic character into a character who’s depressed because people think he’s stupid. He has a very tragic story that you learn about throughout the film – to be able to add depth to characters who are thought of as the silliest is a fun thing for me to do.”
It sounds like there's going to be more to Krill's abilities than simply weaponizing brightly-colored spots, however, as the mag reveals that it was present on set for a scene in which the character's "head glowing and swelling to disturbing proportions."
“I can tell you that my character Abner is someone who has lived a lifetime with a lot of pain, a lot of shame, a lot of solitude because of a condition that he has,” adds Ant-Man actor David Dastmalchian, who will bring Polka-Dot Man to life on screen. “That condition was something that he decided at a certain point in time would be best suited to hurt other people or at least perform acts of crime, so that he could get some vengeance against a cruel and unfair world. Things haven’t gone great in Abner’s life basically since day one, so as we find him entering this story, he’s somebody that has never been a part of anything, so even in a bunch of really broken misfits and criminals, he’s maybe found one of the first moments in his life where he’s a part of something.”
Will ol' Abner be one of the few survivors of the carnage that awaits Task Force X? We'll find out this August. In related news, Gunn has conformed that The Suicide Squad will have at least one mid/post credits scene.
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Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.