Last we heard of Warner Brothers’ adaptation of DC’s villain team-up movie, Suicide Squad, Tom Hardy was part of a very impressive cast. But today it’s been announced that Hardy is dropping out and will no longer play team leader Rick Flag, and WB is now allegedly seeking Jake Gyllenhaal as his replacement. Suicide Squad’s director, David Ayer, worked with Jake G on End of Watch, so they have an in, and Jake G is open to superhero projects—including Dr. Strange. When it looked like Benedict Cumberbatch wasn’t going to work out, Marvel seriously considered Jake G, which would have been fantastic, and they really liked him. But if he goes with DC, he’ll be off Marvel’s list of potentials, and not for any DC/Marvel bullsh*t reason, but because their movies tend to film concurrently and crossing over isn’t practical.
Here’s where it really gets interesting to me, though—Hardy is citing scheduling conflicts as his reason for jumping ship. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s The Revenant is running over schedule and then Hardy will be needed to promote Mad Max: Fury Road in the spring, which is when Suicide Squad will begin filming. It’s just too much you guys, to go from a film shoot to a press tour and then another film shoot.
Except that’s exactly what the cast of Captain America: Civil War are doing. Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, and RDJ will begin filming Civil War and then take off for the press tour for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Also, Chris Hemsworth will be shooting Snow White prequel The Huntsman while simultaneously handling press duties for Ultron. Coincidentally, he’s working on The Huntsman with Charlize Theron, Hardy’s co-star in Mad Max, who will also be both promoting that movie while filming another. But I’m sure it’s just the scheduling, even though no one else seems to be having a similar issue with juggling things for a couple weeks, there can’t possibly any other (creative) reason Tom Hardy would want to drop out of Suicide Squad. Just the schedule. Which isn’t a problem for anyone else.
