Tom Hardy Drops Out Of ‘Suicide Squad,’ Jake Gyllenhaal To Replace Him?

Even though Jake Gyllenhaal may not have won a Golden Globe for his performance in Nightcrawler, the actor may have something else promising in the near future – taking over Tom Hardy’s ‘Suicide Squad’ role. Director David Ayer is now reported to be courting Gyllenhaal for the role of Rick Flag.

The D.C. Comics series Suicide Squad is an antihero team of incarcerated supervillians who are given a second chance to work with the United States Government. These former villains are promised shorter prison sentences (or none at all) if they do these high-risk missions for the Government. Tom Hardy was originally meant to play Rick Flag, an elite soldier and fighter pilot who is considered to be the leader of the antihero group.

Due to scheduling conflicts with the film “The Revenant”, Hardy has decided to pull out of the DC movie. It doesn’t seem to be a personal issue, rather “The Revenant” is going over schedule into mid-March, meaning he couldn’t do both at the same time. Afterwards, Hardy will be promoting WB’s “Mad Max” which releases May 15th. Suicide Squad is planning to begin filming mid-April in Toronto, and for a release on August 5th, 2016.

Should Gyllenhaal join the movie, he would accompany Will Smith as Deadshot, Jared Leto as the Joker, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney as Boomerang, and Cara Delevingne as Enchantress. This would be the first time that Gyllenhaal would be a part of a comic book movie. Years ago he was eyed to replace Toby Maguire in “Spider-Man 2″, but Maguire’s back recovered in time to keep the role. His sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal, was featured in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” as Rachel Dawes

Suicide Squad so far is looking to be an all-star cast, with-or-without Tom Hardy. No official statement has been released to confirm whether or not Jake Gyllenhaal has replaced Hardy. As of now it is only a rumor that he could take the helm as leader of the antihero group.

Photo Credit: Tabercil

Tom Hardy Drops Out Of ‘Suicide Squad,’ Jake Gyllenhaal To Replace Him?