Originally published May 1, 2019. Updated May 2, 2019.
Just a day after David Dastmalchian was cast as the Polka-Dot Man in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, Variety has revealed another piece of casting to the DC supervillain film in Daniela Melchior (Valor da Vida), who has reportedly joined the film as the Batman villain Ratcatcher.
Among the group of new characters, Melchior’s Ratcatcher will apparently share a connection to Idris Elba’s (Luther) unnamed character.
Elba was originally set to take over the role of Deadshot from Will Smith after scheduling conflicts prevented him from reprising his role. After some consideration, Gunn and Warner Bros. decided to keep Elba in the film, but have him play a new character so Smith could potentially return as Deadshot for another Suicide Squad film. The Suicide Squad will be Melchior’s first major role in a studio film after appearing mainly in Portuguese films and television shows.
Ratcatcher is one of Batman’s low-level villains who is a man in the comics. Introduced in Detective Comics #585 and created by Alan Grant, John Wagner and Norm Breyfogle, Ratcatcher is able to communicate and train rats to do his bidding. He uses them to plague Gotham City and sneak in contraband items while in prison. This will mark the character’s first appearance in film.
Melchior joins the returning Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang) and Viola Davis (Amanda Waller) in the cast of the sequel/reboot. Newcomers to the film include Elba and Dasmalchian, while John Cena (Bumblebee) is also said to be in talks for a role.
