Suicide Squad's Samoa Joe says it "shouldn't be on companies" to mitigate toxic fans

Despite being the current AEW World Champion, Samoa Joe still makes time in his busy schedule for acting. He most notably took the role of Sweet Tooth in 2023’s Twisted Metal series, and now he’s coming to the world of video games, playing King Shark in the upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

Joe knows his way around the DC universe, and he explains that King Shark has always been a character that caught his eye.

“I’m a knowledgeable DC fan, I wouldn’t say I’m an uber DC fan,” he says. “If you got me to a lot of the exterior characters I’d be lost, especially with a lot of the villains. I have a working knowledge of King Shark, I started out with Super Boy and migrated to other comics, mainly just because it was an interesting character – they were doing a play on Pacific mythology and the name sounded vaguely Samoan.

“Throughout Pacific culture, the shark is a very important animal, so you gotta take notice of these things. Seeing his various incarnations up until me was a lot of fun too from Ron Funches to even Sly Stallone. It was cool seeing all the recent interpretations – I even like the cartoon ones.”

This portrayal of King Shark is a step away from those done previously though. Where King Sharks’ portrayal in the 2021 Suicide Squad film was as more of a goofball character, Joe’s portrayal of King Shark is more well-read – if still prone to comedic outbursts.

“He’s a being of omnipotent power that doesn’t have much experience in the world,” Joe says. “He’s trying to connect with all the things that he’s read about in the many books that he’s devoured. He’s a bazooka with a childlike mind, and you get to see him rampage through the city of Metropolis.”

Balancing your role in a large ensemble cast like that of Suicide Squad is something Joe has plenty of experience with, having worked in the world of pro wrestling for decades, where using your limited screen time to stand out is everything.

“A lot of it is understanding that you’re working with other incredible voice actors who you know are gonna give great performances,” Joe explains. “It’s about finding ways to fit naturally into the conversation, work off their energy, and have your energy work with theirs. You can sit there and try to outshine or you can luster up the dialogue as a whole, and King Shark is a touchstone for that; at times he’s the straight man and at times he says the most hilarious things.”

Be it comics, gaming, or wrestling, fans often succumb to tribalism and endless arguments on social media. Joe recently weighed in on the Xbox vs PlayStation debate, telling fans that they shouldn’t spend so much time arguing about this sort of thing.

However, it doesn’t help when the likes of AEW owner Tony Khan cause a stir by blasting WWE’s creative decisions on Twitter, inspiring yet more heated debate among fans. Joe gives his thoughts on what the role of companies should be in these situations.

“I don’t think you can mitigate anything, and it shouldn’t be on companies,” he says. “Companies should put out what they put out and if their product is good and it speaks to fans, they’ll show up.

“The more you try to mitigate the speech of the world, you end up failing in that endeavor and usually making things worse for yourself. Companies need to realize that not everybody’s going to love what you put out, but you don’t need to suppress that, you just need to put out a good product and let that speak volumes over whatever anybody else may say.”

As far as the in-ring action goes, everyone in AEW has their eyes on Samoa Joe and his world championship, but Joe names a few names that he has his eye on as potential contenders.

“Swerve Strickland who is on fire right now and doing great work, you got ‘Hangman’ Adam Page who has been a perennial contender in AEW, Kenny Omega when he gets healthy, there’s Will Ospreay, Jon Moxley,” Joe explains. “The beautiful thing about this championship run is there's so many of these matchups that have never been explored – a lot of fresh competition which is something that I really enjoy and am looking forward to embracing.”

Joe has made it clear that younger stars slightly lower on the totem pole will get opportunities too, having recently made his first world title defense against 24-year-old wrestler, Hook. With a lot of young talent in AEW, there are some people that Joe wants to see break into the mainstream in the near future.

“The top two candidates in that aspect are Ricky Starks and Will Hobbs,” Joe tells us. “[They] are so under the radar and people don’t understand their potential just yet. There’s a plethora of talent but I think those two right now definitely stick out as the guys who are really trying to crack into that next level.”

It’s worth noting that in our recent interview with Cody Rhodes, he also named Ricky Starks as someone he’d like to work with, so it seems the man may be spoiled for choice whenever he next has to negotiate a deal with either AEW or WWE.

One place where fan discussion is usually funnier than it is toxic is on the signs taken to arenas. We’ve covered some of the best video game wrestling signs before, but for Joe, there is only one kind that sticks out in his mind.

“Mostly they’re really filthy signs,” Joe says. “I would never re-utter what was on them. Usually not even directed at me, you’re just like ‘Wow, I can’t believe you put that on a sign and held it over your head’. Trust me, if you see them and you laugh about them, then usually I laugh about them too.”

So there you go, if you want your sign to be noticed and remembered by the wrestlers, the filthier the better – do remember that these shows have a TV-MA age rating though.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League releases on January 30, 2024, on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.