Depending on which source you believe, Tom Hardy dropped out of the Warner Bros./DC**Suicide Squad **because of scheduling clashes or because he wasn’t sure of the script. Still, director David Ayer hasn’t wasted much time finding a replacement, with RoboCop’s Joel Kinnaman in early talks to take over the Rick Flagg role{
“Early talks”, of course, means there’s no guarantee that he’ll definitely end up with the role. But with shooting set to kick off shortly, Ayer will want to act quickly to seal his main line-up after Jake Gyllenhaal passed on the job.
The film, which finds a group of DC Comics villains and anti-heroes including Deadshot (Will Smith), The Joker (Jared Leto), Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) rounded up to go on hazardous missions for the US government, is set to be Warners’ follow-up to next March's Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, with an August 5, 2016 release date already on the books.
There has been chatter about Jesse Eisenberg showing up to reprise his Lex Luthor portrayal from **Dawn Of Justice **and even talk of a cameo by Ben Affleck’s Batman, though all that remains speculation for now. Ayer is in pre-production on the film now, working from his own script.
Kinnaman will next be seen in** Run All Night** alongside Liam Neeson, with the film due on March 13. He’ll follow that with, coincidentally, co-starring alongside Hardy in Russian murder drama** Child 44** (April 17) and has a role in Terrence Malick’s Knight Of Cups, which has yet to find a UK date.