On June 15, 2016, Twenty One Pilots posted a tweet of a subliminal message reading "takeitslow", a lyric taken from the song "Heathens".[3] On the same day, the song initially leaked onto the Internet. The following day, June 16, it was revealed that the song will be featured on the motion picture soundtrack for the 2016 American superhero film based on the DC Comics antihero team Suicide Squad. The soundtrack is set to be released on August 5, 2016.[4]
The band performed "Heathens" for the first time in concert at The Uptown Amphitheatre at the Music Factory in Charlotte, North Carolina on June 28, 2016.[5]
On June 21, 2016, the official music video, directed by Andrew Donoho, was uploaded to the Fueled By RamenYouTube channel.[6] It shows Tyler Joseph singing the song in Belle Reve, a fictional prison in the DC Universe, with Josh Dun appearing while playing drums in the course of the video. Towards the end of the video, Joseph and Dun play on a small stage in the middle of a room, the prisoners then leave their cells and watch Joseph and Dun while they perform the remainder of the song. At the end of the video, Joseph is sitting in the room alone, while the guards surround him. Also, during the music video, various clips of Suicide Squad are played.
