Suicide Squad cast revealed in first photo from director David Ayers

Ayers tweeted a picture of his assembled actors at a read-through for the movie

The cast of David Ayer's Suicide Squad meet for a read-through (David Ayer)

David Ayer has shared the first picture of the Suicide Squad cast, featuring the likes of Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Cara Delevinge.

The super-villain movie also stars Viola Davis as Amanda Walker, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc, Scott Eastwood as Steve Trevor and Jai Courtney as Boomerang, alongside Smith as Deadshot, Robbie as Harley Quinn and Delevinge as Enchantress.

Jim Parrack, Ike Barinholtz, Adam Beach, Karen Fukuhara and Jay Rodriguez will also appear but it remains unknown what roles they will perform. Reports claim that Parrack is Deathstroke, Barinholtz is Dr Hugo Strange and Beach is Raven, according to Latino Review.

Jared Leto and Scott Eastwood are absent from Ayer's photo, which he tweeted on Wednesday night. Leto, who plays The Joker, was reportedly missing because he is on tour with his band 30 Seconds to Mars. Other speculation suggests he may not be in it to keep his big transformation for the DC Comics-based movie secret.

Jared Leto will play The Joker in Suicide Squad (Getty Images)

The film's storyline follows a group of villains who take on dangerous black op missions for the government on the proviso that their sentences be reduced.

Suicide Squad is due in UK cinemas on 5 August 2016, following Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice on 25 March. Between now and 2020, Warner Bros plans to roll out ten superhero and supervillain epics based on DC Comics characters.