Tom Hardy was bummed about having to walk away from Suicide Squad

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Tom Hardy was once in the process of joining up for the DC Cinematic Universe, set to take the role of Rick Flagg for David Ayer‘s vision of SUICIDE SQUAD. But one thing led to another and Hardy had to walk away, leaving that spot in the cast vacant for Joel Kinnaman to take. At the time there was talk that Hardy wasn’t exactly high on the script once he got his hands on it, but it appears there was something else going on that prevented him from meeting the schedule needed for the Warner Bros. film – his extended time shooting THE REVENANT.

There’s a very practical element as to why I’ve missed out on [Suicide Squad], which is because Alejandro [G. Inarritu] has overshot by three months in Calgary, so we’ve got to go back out to Patagonia or Alaska to continue shooting The Revenant which has turned into a much bigger beast than we thought, but that also looks exceptional…Literally we wrapped in Calgary for now until we go back in July. It would have smashed the two, I would’ve had a beard. It was just not gonna happen so I got ass-slammed technically out of Suicide Squad, gutted, so I had to hand it over to Joel Kinnaman, who will do an amazing job. It’s just I got bumped out, and that’s cool that’s the way it is.

Is it really cool though? Tom Hardy doesn’t sound too pleased about having to miss out on his second DC film (THE DARK KNIGHT RISES being the first).

Was I bummed? Of course I was. I hate f*cking losing work. I kept bemoaning that they were losing me significant money on a daily basis. Actually, it was good for my character.

Hardy certainly has a point there as that frustration for wanting to get paid definitely had roots in his work in THE REVENANT, and we’ll still have to see how Kinnaman shows out in SUICIDE SQUAD. But man… wouldn’t it have been nice to have Hardy be a part of it? One of those What-if’s we’ll have to wonder about.

SUICIDE SQUAD lands in theaters on August 5, 2016.