Tom Hardy has reportedly dropped out of the DC Comics supervillains-on-a-mission movie Suicide Squad, and will probably be replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal (if the Internet has its way, anyway). “Hardy was going to play Rick Flag,” writes Vulture‘s Nate Jones, “a former military man forced to work alongside the titular team of supervillains.” The Wrap has the exclusive on Hardy’s departure: “Hardy was forced to exit the project because Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s ‘The Revenant’ is going over schedule into mid-March, after which Hardy will be needed to promote WB’s ‘Mad Max: Fury Road,’ which comes out on May 15. Suicide Squad is expected to start production in April, and that time crunch is why Hardy had to drop out of the film.” So just scheduling conflicts, then: no hardy feelings (sorry).
David Ayer (who directed Gyllenhaal in End of Watch) is directing the comic book movie, which co-stars Margot Robbie, Jared Leto and Will Smith. According to The Wrap, “Gyllenhaal has emerged as Ayer’s favorite” to take Hardy’s role. Suicide Squad is one of DC Comics’ lesser-known properties: it’s a sort of supervillain equivalent of ‘The Dirty Dozen.’ Abraham Riesman has provided a handy crib-sheet about the comic here.
