Comic-Con may be over for another year, but the fun doesn’t stop there, as now begins the long wait for those of us who weren’t lucky enough to attend the convention in person to see the exclusive footage premiered during most, if not all, of the panels. Some of the footage may never see the light of day in its Comic-Con form, whilst some – such as the new trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – is released almost simultaneously with its premiere at the event.

One piece of footage that we don’t have to wait too long to see, however, is the first trailer for David Ayer’s upcoming Suicide Squad, which has just had its online debut via the director’s Twitter account.

Featuring a first look at the film’s roster of anti-heroes, including Will Smith as Floyd Lawton/Deadshot, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and, of course, Jared Leto’s new take on The Joker, the trailer also teases an inclusion into the wider DC Comics Cinematic Universe, with a brief glimpse of Batman in the middle of taking down a car housing The Joker and Harley Quinn in a high-speed road chase.

It seems the footage has only been released officially after a flurry of low-quality, bootleg videos were leaked directly from individuals inside Hall H, where the film held its Comic-Con panel, after the presentation. A statement from Sue Kroll, President Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution at Warner Bros. had this to say on the clip’s release:

“Warner Bros. Pictures and our anti-piracy team have worked tirelessly over the last 48 hours to contain the Suicide Squad footage that was pirated from Hall H on Saturday. We have been unable to achieve that goal. Today we will release the same footage that has been illegally circulating on the web, in the form it was created and high quality with which it was intended to be enjoyed. We regret this decision as it was our intention to keep the footage as a unique experience for the Comic Con crowd, but we cannot continue to allow the film to be represented by the poor quality of the pirated footage stolen from our presentation.”

It’s a great shame that the footage was first seen in a low-quality form, but here at Screening we’re hotly anticipating the release of Suicide Squad, being big fans of characters’ portrayal in their small-screen counterparts in TV’s Arrow, so we’re thrilled the footage has finally been released in all its HD glory; you can certainly expect this to feature highly on our ‘Screening (P)reviews… 2016’ article when it inevitably drops early next year!

Suicide Squad is released in the UK on 5 August 2016 and stars Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Carla Delevingne, Jared Leto, Jai Courtney and Joel Kinnaman.