A recent behind-the-scenes photo of The Suicide Squad shows Peter Capaldi gleefully handling human intestines. Capaldi, who is perhaps best known as the twelfth Doctor on cult sci-fi show Doctor Who, boasts an impressive list of stage and screen credits dating back to the 1970s. When director James Gunn first cast Capaldi in 2019 his role was kept under wraps, and it wasn’t until last year’s DC Fandome that it was revealed he was playing geneticist Gaius Grieves AKA The Thinker.

While there have been multiple versions of The Thinker throughout DC’s long comic book history, Capaldi’s version of the character was a new iteration of the well-known villain. Where the first version of The Thinker, Clifford DeVoe, first appeared in 1943 and would go on to become one of the original members of the Injustice Society, Capaldi’s Gaius Grieves is instead a scientist recruited by the US Government to oversee the illegal Project Starfish experiments being conducted in the fictional South American nation of Corto Maltese. While Capaldi’s Thinker was still no doubt a highly intelligent individual, he did not seemingly possess any of the telepathic abilities of his counterparts.

His origins and abilities aside, one thing Gaius Grieves did seem to share with his comic book counterparts was a clear sadistic streak. Nowhere is this more evident than in a recent set photo shared by Gunn which shows Capaldi reveling in the gore on the set of his character’s Jotunheim laboratory. Sharing the image to his Instagram to promote an upcoming watch party for The Suicide Squad, Gunn asks fans to join in on August 30 “to learn all our dirty little secrets”. Check out the original image below:

In a film that does not shy away from gratuitous blood and gore, the experiments conducted by Grieves in the former Nazi research facility known as Jotunheim were reminiscent of something lifted straight out of horror film. With mutilated corpses and blood-soaked floors, Gunn pulled out all the stops to portray Capaldi’s character as every inch the mad scientist. As shocking as the scenes appeared in the final product, they were no doubt a lot of fun to film as Gunn’s photo seems to indicate.

While Capaldi’s time as The Thinker seems to have already come to a close, with his character being killed by the creature Starro that he kept imprisoned for decades, there is still plenty more for in store for fans of Gunn’s twisted take on the DC franchise. With Capaldi’s co-star John Cena headlining his own spinoff series for HBO Max, there is still bound to be a lot more blood and gore to come. In the meantime, fans of The Suicide Squad will have their chance to chat with Gunn and his cast during his highly anticipated watch party starting at 6 pm PT on August 30th.

Next: The Suicide Squad: Every Surviving Character's DCEU Future Explained

Source: James Gunn

Knives Out 2 Actor Calls Filming Terrifying & Incredible