Apparently, herding supervillians on black ops missions that the government will deny when things inevitably go wrong really doesn’t sound like fun to anyone, as Jake Gyllenhaal has decided that he won’t fill in for Tom Hardy as the leader of David Ayer’s Suicide Squad. Hardy was the original choice for the role of Rick Flag, a government soldier who has to give orders to the likes of Jared Leto’s Joker, and tell Will Smith’s Deadshot to keep his wise-ass remarks to himself or he’s going back to prison. However, Hardy dropped out last week, citing “scheduling issues” with the promotional campaign for Mad Max: Fury Road and a recently extended shooting schedule for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s The Revenant.
Gyllenhaal was the next obvious choice because he previously worked with Ayer on End of Watch and because he’s beefy again, so he’ll look good on a poster. Alas, Variety reports that Gyllenhaal has turned down the role, but no reason was given. Maybe it’s because Gyllenhaal has four films releasing in 2015 (and a Broadway run in Constellations), and he just wants to take a break. Or maybe it’s because of that uninviting title. Suicide Squad goes before cameras in April, so Ayer still has time to change the title to Bad Guy Jamboree to attract other talent.