Suicide Squad is the most-hyped film on Twitter, beating Star Wars, Fantastic Beasts and Ghostbusters

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Excitement for summer blockbuster Suicide Squad has reached fever pitch, with the supervillain movie generating more social media conversations than this year’s other hyped films.

Suicide Squad, due for UK release on 5 August, racked up 66K mentions last week alone, beating Star Wars and Harry Potter spin-offs Rogue One and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Deadline reports that data from ComScore’s PreAct shows there have been 1.3 million social conversations about Suicide Squad in total, predominantly on Twitter. This is almost 14 times the amount for The BFG, nearly 12 times those for The Legend of Tarzan, almost triple the number for Star Trek Beyond and 1.65 times more than for Ghostbusters.

Suicide Squad has benefitted from a strong marketing campaign with a clear, alternative aesthetic. Character posters, music videos from the soundtrack and regular glimpses at new footage have kept movie fans engaged, while stories of Jared Leto sending his co-stars dead rats and used condoms to “create a dynamic” has raised expectations for a memorable performance as The Joker.

Director David Ayer announced on Friday that Suicide Squad is finished, after reportedly undergoing reshoots to make it “funnier” than the decidedly dark Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Suicide Squad also stars Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Will Smith as Deadshot, Cara Delevingne as Enchantress and Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag.

The story follows Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, with Ben Affleck making a brief cameo as Batman, and focuses on a group of villains recruited by a secret government agency to carry out black op missions in exchange for reduced jail sentences.