Tom Hardy (Photo : REUTERS/JASON REDMOND)
"Suicide Squad" will be a darker superhero movie-because it's a "supervillain movie."
From the title alone, there is a certainty of death among its ranks. The question is: who will be the casualties?
There are some rumors that one of them could be no less than Rick Flagg. Flagg is not a supervillain himself but he is pretty much their "leash." He is the field commander of the squad with the unenviable task to make sure the mission is carried out by the motley crew.
The role was originally offered to Tom Hardy, one of the most in-demand actors today and is no stranger to the superhero genre having played Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises." However, his "in-demand" status ultimately led him to leave the project.
That is actually one of the components of the theory. There is speculation that when Tom Hardy left the project, Flagg became an expendable character.
When Hardy left, the role was given to Joel Kinnaman as reported in February. Kinnaman already played the lead in "Robocop" but admittedly, he is quite a far cry from Hardy.
Hardy eventually commented on the "Suicide Squad" script. His statements from Collider merited some curiosity.
"Warner Bros. is my home studio and I love them so I was really bummed out. I wanted to work on that and I know the script is really f***ing alley and I also know what's gonna happen with The Joker and Harley Quinn in that; I won't give away too much...it's f***ing alley. And that whole territory is something that I would certainly-I mean, everybody loves The Joker. Everybody loves The Joker. Will Smith is a dope guy, but everybody loves The Joker and that's gonna, I think, be a very important film for fans."
There seems to be no mention of the role he should have played. Of course, the interview did not center on that and it could be more of overthinking than reading between the lines, but it does show that "Suicide Squad" would be centered on the characters he mentioned. Could it have been different if Hardy stayed?
More clues seemed to confirm that Flagg would be a one-shot in the DC Extended Universe. From What Culture, they cite that the trailer showed snippets that Will Smith's Deadshot character appeared to be in a leadership role.
There was also a scene where Katana, Flagg's bodyguard/ally in the squad was on "a path of relentless violence" apparently "in the wake of (Flagg's) demise." Katana is describes a merciless killer, and for her to react so emotionally, meant that someone connected to her has perished. Apparently, Flagg was the only one who qualifies for that.
This is simply a theory-based rumor not confirmed by Warner/DC. We'll see if Flagg falls on August 5, 2016.
