Suggesting a team whose entire purpose is to throw themselves into deadly situations with no hope of survival might have some trouble finding a leader, Tom Hardy has dropped out of Warner Bros.’ Suicide Squad, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Hardy was set to play Rick Flag, the good-guy government soldier who’s tasked with corralling a group of supervillains that includes Jared Leto’s Joker, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, and Will Smith’s Deadshot, and carrying out the impossible missions that only the most criminally insane and physically attractive would take on.
But now Hardy has reportedly dropped out over “scheduling issues,” as Suicide Squad conflicts not only with promotional duties for Mad Max: Fury Road, but with the recently extended shooting schedule for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s The Revenant. For those who were looking forward to Hardy, this marks the second time the Birdman director has been associated with ruined comic-book characters.
Nevertheless, THR says the studio and director David Ayer have already put an offer out to Ayer’s End Of Watch star Jake Gyllenhaal—who’s already packed on a lot of muscle for Southpaw—in hopes that he can step in. The conflict there is reportedly Gyllenhaal’s Broadway run in Constellations, which doesn’t end until mid-March and may not leave Gyllenhaal with enough downtime to prepare. Still, how hard could it be? You get some guys in a squad and you suicide ’em. Whaddaya need, a road map?