On February 27th, it was confirmed that Will Smith will not be reprising the role of Deadshot in the upcoming Suicide Squad sequel. The James Gunn-directed film, entitled The Suicide Squad, is set for release on August 6th, 2021 and no other cast has been set as of yet. The only thing that is for sure is that Smith will not return, leaving a lot of questions regarding recasting or replacing the character entirely up in the air.

Thankfully, the word was that Smith’s exit was entirely amicable and that, even though it was hoped he would return, he was never officially signed on to do the film. So while Smith is off working on other big (and blue) projects, here are the six best reactions to Will Smith leaving as Deadshot.

FANS ARE BUMMED OUT ABOUT IT

Despite the vitriolic reaction to many elements of Suicide Squad, there were a few things most fans and critics agreed on: Margot Robbie was perfect as Harley Quinn, and Will Smith was great as Deadshot. So, it was definitely a bummer when it was announced that he wouldn’t be returning for the sequel. Even though he’s had a rocky time on our screens as of late (with the likes of Bright, Concussion and Collateral Beauty disappointing on most fronts), he’s still an icon and one of the most charismatic movie stars around.

It couldn’t be denied that his performance as Deadshot was fun and had some compelling pathos under the surface. He looked cool in the costume, with his bald head and beard combination being a unique new look for him. He handled himself well in action scenes and had chemistry with most of his castmates. So, fittingly, a lot of the reaction was from fans who were understandably crestfallen about him exiting the role.

WAIT, HE CAN’T BE DEADSHOT BECAUSE HE’S BEING A BLUE GENIE?!

The report of Smith exiting the role intimated that the reasons for his leaving were the classic Hollywood ‘scheduling conflicts’. With The Suicide Squad scheduled to begin filming this autumn, Smith simply isn’t able to fit the film into his schedule, which currently sees him promoting Aladdin and shooting Bad Boys For Life. It was Aladdin that seemed to prompt the most hilarious responses from fans on social media, with many aghast that he was leaving Deadshot behind to play a poorly rendered CGI genie.

The poor reaction to the first Aladdin trailer was still fresh in people’s minds when news broke, so there were plenty of snarky tweets about him ruining his career enough without playing Deadshot again. Our favorite, though, was the person who suggested that Smith left because James Gunn told him Deadshot couldn’t be blue this time!

TO RE-CAST OR NOT TO RE-CAST?

As an addendum to the original news story, Variety reporter Justin Kroll tweeted that his sources said Warner Brothers were deciding whether they would re-cast the role of Deadshot or replace him with a different DC Universe character who would join the Squad for the sequel. It’s an interesting conundrum for the studio, as Deadshot is arguably the DC character most synonymous with the Squad in the comics and other media adaptations. Deadshot is always the field leader of the team; he’s the constant.

With reports that Margot Robbie and even Jared Leto are expected to return as Harley and The Joker, it makes re-casting Will Smith an even tougher choice; if the other main characters are the same actors again, it’ll stand out even more if someone else is playing Deadshot. Will Smith’s shoes will be very big to fill as well, as there are few actors out there with his screen presence, talent and history of being one of the most bankable actors in the game.

BREAKING NEWS: DON CHEADLE REPLACES WILL SMITH AS DEADSHOT

There are plenty of satirical Twitter accounts out there that comment amusingly on the goings on in Hollywood. And then there are some that will come up with a fake headline that is not funny enough to be seen as satire. One of the latter tweeted on February 28th that Don Cheadle (Ocean’s Eleven, House Of Lies) was in talks to replace Will Smith as Deadshot.

Obviously, it was intended as a silly reference to Cheadle replacing Terrence Howard in Iron Man 2 as James Rhodes/War Machine, but that was as far as the joke went. A few people didn’t get it and thought Cheadle was really leaving the MCU for the Worlds Of DC, but mostly people just seemed to shrug. That is, until Cheadle himself then replied incredulously a few days later! Brilliant.

ACTUALLY, THERE’S ONLY ONE SUITABLE REPLACEMENT: JOE MANGANIELLO’S DEATHSTROKE

With Warner Brothers apparently considering replacing Deadshot with another character, many fans (and ScreenRant itself) posited that DC/Warners already have a readymade replacement in their ranks: Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke! Originally intended to be the main villain in Ben Affleck’s canceled solo Batman movie, the character was then rumored to be subject of an in-development solo movie from The Raid director Gareth Evans.

Both of these projects fell by the wayside, as did Deathstroke’s proposed involvement in a Legion Of Doom storyline in a Justice League sequel (after that movie bombed at the box-office). So far, all audiences have seen of Manganiello (True Blood, Magic Mike) as Slade Wilson was a post-credits cameo in Justice League, but they want more and it’s hard to argue with the notion that the character would work perfectly in a Suicide Squad movie. Why not replace one expert DC assassin with another?

MAYBE THIS MEANS THE ARROWVERSE CAN BRING THEIR DEADSHOT BACK?

It’s well known that when Warner Brothers/DC were developing the Suicide Squad movie, an edict went out that all Squad related characters had to be cut out of the CW Arrowverse. They didn’t want potential audiences to be confused by there being a different Squad on TV played by different actors, so the TV versions began to die or be written out of the show.

Deadshot had been played on the show by Michael Rowe since season one and was very popular with fans, so they were upset when he was killed off in the season three episode ‘Suicidal Tendencies’. Therefore, whenever the Will Smith news broke, several fans took to Twitter to say they hoped that Warners wouldn’t recast the role for the big screen, leaving the option open for Arrow writers to bring their Deadshot back in some way.