Viola Davis In Talks For Amanda Waller DC Series On HBO Max
It seems Viola Davis could be set to return as the A.R.G.U.S. head Amanda Waller, as HBO Max courts the actress for her own series on the US streaming service.
Davis first took on the role of Amanda Waller in 2016’s ‘Suicide Squad’ movie, before reprising it in James Gunn’s 2021 film ‘The Suicide Squad’, and on the spin-off tv series ‘Peacemaker’. Waller is a senior civil servant and director of A.R.G.U.S. who put together Task Force X (aka “The Suicide Squad”), a team of expendable metahumans criminals who are used to execute covert operations against extremely dangerous threats. If ..and that is a very big “IF”… they survive, they get their sentences reduced. We last saw Davis as Waller when she made a cameo appearance in ‘Peacemaker’ *SPOILERS INCOMING* when she used her own daughter, Leota (played by ‘Orange Is The New Black’ star Danielle Brooks), to frame the titular star for a larger conspiracy.
The potential series comes from writer Christal Henry, whose previous work includes HBO’s breathtaking ‘Watchmen’ series, along with drama such as ‘APB’, ‘Gang Related’ and ‘Unforgettable’. Gunn would exec produce alongside Henry and ‘Peacemaker’ exec producer Peter Safran.
Viola Davis is no stranger to tv roles, having starred in 5 Seasons of ‘How to Get Away with Murder’, and is currently playing Michelle Obama in the Showtime series ‘The First Lady’. She not only has an Academy Award for the film ‘Fences’, but she also won a Primetime Emmy for ‘How to Get Away with Murder’, and has won two Tony Awards for her stage work, making her the only African-American to achieve the “Triple Crown of Acting”.
Things over in the DC tv and film world are a little in flux at the moment, due to the recent merger of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery. The new management appears to be on the lookout for their “Kevin Feige” – i.e. someone who can wrangle all the disparate DC screen properties into one cohesive entity, much like Feige did for Marvel. We have recently seen some trimming of the DC tv properties, with both ‘Batwoman’ and ‘Legends Of Tomorrow’ getting cancelled over at The CW, signalling a possible end to the once-beloved Arrowverse. This potential new project does, of course, have ties to the wider DC Extended Universe, set up by Zack Snyder. However, with the success of Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman’ film, which sits outside of the DCEU and also has its own tv spin-off featuring Colin Farrell as The Penguin in the works, and the… issues… with some of the actors in the upcoming ‘Flash’ and ‘Aquaman’ movies, not to mention the truckload of other projects such as ‘Batgirl’, ‘Green Lantern’, and ‘Blue Beetle’ scheduled for either cinematic or home release, things are very much in a mess right now. Hopefully, someone can come in and sort it all out.
The potential “Amanda Waller” series is very much classed as “in development” at the moment, but we’ll let you know if and when we hear more.
