Oscar-Winning Rapper Joins Cast Of DC's 'Suicide Squad'

Academy Award winner, hip-hop luminary and actor Common has been announced as the newest member of the cast for Warner Bros/DC Entertainment's forthcoming supervillain-centric feature Suicide Squad, it has been reported.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the rapper-turned-thespian — real name Lonnie Rashid Lynn — will play an as-yet unspecified role in the film, which is directed by David Ayer and focuses on a group of incarcerated villains — affectionately, the Suicide Squad; officially, "Task Force X" — who are called upon by the government to partake in black-ops missions in exchange for various benefits.

Described by the director as "The Dirty Dozen with supervillains", Suicide Squad features fellow musician-cum-screen icon Will Smith as preternatural marksman Deadshot/Floyd Lawton, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jared Leto as The Joker and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, with an impressive ensemble rounding out the squad and wider cast: Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Cara Delevingne as Enchantress, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc.

Also rumoured to be appearing in the film in cameo roles are Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice stars Jesse Eisenberg (Lex Luthor) and Ben Affleck (Batman/Bruce Wayne), though THR acknowledges these are unconfirmed appearances.

Suicide Squad won't be Common's first brush in front of the camera — he featured in recent Liam Neeson vehicle Run All Night (which also stars fellow Suicide Squad member Kinnaman) and was part of the cast of venerated drama Selma, for which he also composed his Oscar-winning song Glory with John Legend.

Suicide Squad is currently in production in Toronto, and is scheduled for an August 2016 release. DC have put a lot of stock in their morally bankrupt super-spies, last year releasing an animated film set in the Batman: Arkham games universe (Batman: Assault On Arkham) that included non-film members Killer Frost, Black Spider and King Shark, and also featuring various iterations of the team multiple times - although Deadshot remains a constant - over Arrow's three seasons to date.

In lieu of a film trailer, get to know the squad through their prior on-screen iterations below.