New 'Suicide Squad' trailer debuts

They might be the self-proclaimed worst heroes ever, but the first official trailer for David Ayer's Suicide Squad demonstrates that they appear to make some compelling protagonists nonetheless.

The trailer debuted during the CW's DC Films Present The Dawn of the Justice League special, which also featured advance looks at next year's Justice League Part 1 and Wonder Woman. It is technically the second chance fans have had to see what lies ahead in the big screen adaptation of DC Entertainment's supervillain black ops team concept, following last summer's surprise release of footage at San Diego Comic-Con.

READ MORE: The Gang's All Here in New 'Suicide Squad' Poster

Suicide Squad centers around a group of villains and ne'er-do-wells -- headed up by Will Smith's Deadshot and Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn -- forced to work for the government under the supervision of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) and Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). With such morally dubious characters as the "good" guys, it falls to one of DC's most infamous villains -- the Joker, as played by Jared Leto -- to take up the position of bad guy in the movie.

See photos from the "Suicide Squad" panel at last year's Comic Con:

Bolstered by a strong social media presence -- helped by Ayer's posting of images from the movie accompanied by the hashtag #Skwad -- Suicide Squad has gone from being a little-known property to one of the most anticipated movies of the year, with Harley Quinn being named as one of the most anticipated comic book characters to debut on the big screen in 2016 in a recent poll of moviegoers, ahead of Marvel Studios' Doctor Strange and Black Panther.

Also starring Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Cara Delevingne and Karen Fukuhara, Suicide Squad is released Aug. 5.

Watch the trailer below: