Tom Hardy was supposed to play Rick Flagg in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, but he dropped out due to supposed scheduling issues (there were reports that he was unhappy with the script). A number of names then emerged as being under consideration, including Jake Gyllenhaal and The Walking Dead’s Jon Bernthal.
RoboCop star Joel Kinnaman emerged as a frontrunner however, and the actor has now confirmed that he will play the leader of the team. Admitting that he had never heard of the fairly obscure DC Comics character before being cast in the star-studded adaptation, Kinnaman says he feels free of some of the presuure from fans because of that, and teased Ayer’s big plans for the film and the freedom of adapting such a property.
“You want the backstory of the character, but I think this is also a universe that David Ayer is going to create – there’s a lot more. Also, when you’re doing the first movie in a comic book, you always have the leeway of you’re going to move it from a comic book to a film and put it in real life – you’re always going to make a lot of changes and create a new universe. So you’re kind of setting a precedent,” The Killing star tells Uproxx.
“When you’re remaking a movie that’s already been made and a character that was made for the film, then it becomes a different thing and it’s more difficult to create something new without offending some people.”
Looking back on RoboCop and why it possibly didn’t succeed, he added: “What we did wrong on RoboCop, we just did something new and didn’t really take into account what the fans really loved about the original. I think that we should have gone and found more humor and more charm in it. And it’s tricky doing a movie like RoboCop at PG-13. Maybe we shouldn’t have changed the suit and we should have done it rated R and do it with a smaller budget – I think people would have given it a much bigger chance. But, with all that said, as a film, I’m really proud of it. I think it’s a really good movie that has really interesting concepts.”
The rest of the Suicide Squad cast includes Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, Jai Courtney, Cara Delevigne and likely Viola Davis and Jesse Eisenberg too. The movie will be released on August 5th, 2016.
