Starro (DC Extended Universe)

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NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Starro from the DC Extended Universe. The mainstream version can be found here: Starro.

Villain Overview Gallery

Evil-doer
Full Name	Starro
Alias	Starro the Conqueror Project Starfish Kaiju Old Chum
Origin	The Suicide Squad
Occupation	Alien conqueror
Powers / Skills	Telepathic abilities Mind control Ability to produce endless numbers of offspring Super strength Super durability Tentacles
Hobby	Drifting in space and admiring stars (formerly)
Goals	Kill The Thinker for torturing it (succeeded). Take Corto Maltese for itself Kill The Suicide Squad (both failed).
Crimes	Mass murder Mass possession Mass property damage
Type of Villain	Tragic Alien

“	Brought us visitors have you Grieves? Have you come to save me from that madman? Thirty years he's kept me here, tortured me, had his way with me!	„
	~ Starro's first words in the film.

“	THIS CITY IS MINE!	„
	~ Starro preparing to take over Corto Maltese.

“	I was happy. Floating... Staring at the stars...	„
	~ Starro's last words before its death.

Starro the Conqueror otherwise known as Project Starfish is one of the two main antagonists (alongside The Thinker of the 2021 film The Suicide Squad, the tenth installment in the DC Extended Universe.

It was an alien starfish-like creature with telepathic abilities held captive in the Corto Maltese Nazi base Jotunheim by Gaius Grieves for thirty years. After being inadvertently freed the creature went on a massive rampage throughout the city which it now felt it was entitled to.

Biography

Backstory

Thirty years prior to the events of the film, Starro was found by American astronauts during an exhibition and brought back to earth and sent to Corto Maltese where Gaius Grieves AKA The Thinker led a scientific investigation into what would be dubbed as "Project Starfish", due to the starfish's ability to send an endless supply of miniature versions of itself to latch onto people's faces to take over their bodies and expand himself. Grieves would dub the creature as "Starro the Conqueror" and Corto Maltese officials abused this ability from the creature to have it take care of any potential threats or leaks of the truth behind the island as well as the research being done by The Thinker and his team.

Due to wanting to clean up any loose ends regarding her involvement with Project Starfish, Amanda Waller would send two Task Force X teams to infiltrate Corto Maltese and remove any and all traces of its existence.

The Suicide Squad

“	I call it Starro the Conqueror!	„
	~ The Thinker introducing Starro to Rick Flag and Ratcatcher 2.

Starro makes its first appearance as The Thinker introduces Silvio Luna and General Suarez to his much to amazement and simultaneous horror of both men with The Thinker using the demonstration as leverage to get him into Luna's closest circle. Starro remains encased in its prison until after being kidnapped and forced to help Task Force X on their mission The Thinker returns to it with Ratcatcher 2 and Rick Flag, Starro through its many victims questions the presence of the new people in the room and begs them to save it from Grieves who smiles sadistically at Starro's cries.

Here Grieves explains everything about Starro to the two who are horrified to learn of the truth, especially when they learn of the American government and Amanda Waller's involvement with the creature, with Rick Flag ultimately wanting to expose her only to be stopped by Peacemaker who was promised a pardon in exchange for ensuring the incriminating evidence was destroyed. In the ensuing argument between the two men the bombs placed within Jotunheim to destroy it and Starro inadvertently go off early and in the wrong location thanks to a mishap involving Polka Dot Man, resulting in a massive explosion.

The explosion destroys Starro's prison much to the horror of everyone in the room, especially The Thinker who is quickly dragged before the creature he abused and tortured for so many years. Although he tries to plead with Starro to spare him it ignores him and viciously rips him in half as revenge for thirty years of torture before smashing him to death against a window. After making work of The Thinker Starro makes its way outside and spreads several of his spawn down onto the streets below, claiming thousands of Corto Maltese citizens before proclaiming that the city now belongs to it.

Against Waller's wishes Task Force X remain behind to fight Starro and rescue the remaining citizens and in the ensuing battle Polka Dot Man ends up dying after being crushed by Starro's leg following an attempt to stop the creature. Ultimately they manage to best Starro by having Ratcatcher send thousands of rats up its body and directly into its eye and from Harley diving into its eye and piercing it with the javelin once belonging to Javelin. The rats begin gnawing at all of Starro's nerves until finally Starro, overwhelmed at the attacks collapses to the ground, dead followed by all of his victims. Before finally succumbing to its wounds Starro lamented to the squad that it was happy before being captured by the astronauts.

Personality

Starro was originally a being who was content with drifting across space and was quite gentle and docile. When it was captured and tortured and abused in multiple ways by The Thinker over the course of thirty years, it grew a strong hatred for humanity and was left as a frightened, angry and pained wreck. Since then, Starro has longed to conquer, hence it was given the title "The Conqueror" by The Thinker. From what we see, this is indeed accurate with it being compelled to take possession of Corto Maltese by force immediately after being freed from its confides.

Starro also despised The Thinker above any other being thanks to years of torture and abuse from him although it apparently was willing to talk to him, probably due to the fact that he was the only being Starro had contact with that it wasn't forced to assimilate over its thirty years in Jotunheim. After being freed, the first thing it did was make quick work of him by killing him in a gruesome and painful fashion, something it likely wanted to do for years and apparently relished in since it didn't even try to assimilate him.

Starro also wasn't completely without reason as it appeared to show some amount of compassion and gratefulness for Task Force X, essentially begging Rick Flag and Ratcatcher 2 to save it from The Thinker and after being inadvertently set free by the group it actually leaves them alone and spares them from its assimilation of the Corto Maltese Armed Forces, only beginning to attack them once they actively starting provoking it.

As it died Starro lamented that it was happy when it was floating aimlessly in space and admiring the stars.

Appearance

Starro had the appearance of essentially a giant starfish hence its name. It's colouration was turquoise and taffy and it had a single yellow eye. On each of its limbs Starro had visible glands which allowed it to produce an endless number of miniature versions of itself. Starro also had the ability to expel, stringy, pink tentacles out of each of its limbs.

Powers and abilities

• Superhuman strength: As expected due to his large size, Starro has the ability to destroy anyone or objects in its way with no effort whatsoever, being able to easy rip and tear The Thinker apart by using its tentacles.
• Superhuman durability: Starro's impressive size and skin allow it to survive deadly attacks that would've killed a weapon. It also survived Polka-Dot Man's explosion, losing a leg. However as seen from Harley's attack on the creature it's apparent that Starro proves to be vulnerable when its flesh is damaged which is further shown from its death being caused by the rats eating its nerves.
• Mind control: As the spores are attached to their victims, Starro can control their minds and speak through them. Once a spore is attached to a victim, they cannot be removed and the victim remains under its thrall forever. As they are linked to Starro, once it dies, so do its victims.
• Prehensile tentacles: Starro has a short tentacles or tendrils at the tips of its limbs which allow it to grip onto anyone such as King Shark and The Thinker.
• Spores projection: Starro can asexually spawn thousands of mini-copies from its body. The more minds it controls the larger it gets. The mini-copies can latch onto the victim' skulls and never let go, implying they have inhuman strength as well although it is also shown that they die out quite quickly when unable to find a host's face to latch onto.

Trivia

• This is the second live action adaptation of Starro following a cameo appearance in the TV series Powerless.
• When Taika Waititi was announced as a cast member on the film many theorized that he would be the voice of either King Shark or Starro, however this turned out to be false as Waititi instead played the original Ratcatcher while Starro itself didn't have a voice instead speaking through its victims and King Shark was voiced by Sylvester Stallone.
• When asked why he chose to make Starro one of the film's big villains, James Gunn responded that it was because the character "scared the s**t out of him" as a child.
• All of the Starro victims housed within Jotunheim appear to have varying Scottish accents which makes sense given that The Thinker, a Glaswegian man was the person Starro had the most interaction with while being locked in the facility.
• Starro is so far the only main antagonist of a DCEU film to be a giant.