Tom Hardy Nearly Starred In Both The Worst And Best DCEU Movies

It is safe to say that Tom Hardy has had quite a career. Since making his feature film debut in Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down" in 2001, he has appeared in films that run the gamut of genre and scale: from smaller character-driven dramas like "Warrior" and "Locke" to some of the most ambitious blockbusters of the 2010s including "Inception" and "Mad Max: Fury Road." Hardy's resume showcases his talents as a performer who boasts leading man looks and sensibilities, but at his core is an eager character actor pursuing a wide variety of roles. 

Like many of his contemporaries, Tom Hardy has brought his talents to superhero cinema. With his dynamite work as Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises" and the bonkers, off-the-wall zaniness he exhibited as the star of the "Venom" trilogy, Hardy is in that special group of actors who have appeared in films based on both DC and Marvel Comics. Interestingly enough, there was a moment in time when Hardy was set to bring his talents to the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), but he dropped out of this particular project. Had he ended up accepting this role, he would have starred in both the DCEU's worst film, and its best.

In December 2014, Warner Bros. Pictures announced the initial cast for what would become the third entry in the DCEU, "Suicide Squad." Will Smith, Tom Hardy, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, and Cara Delevingne were the first six actors confirmed for the David Ayer-directed film. Hardy was set to play Rick Flag, a United States Army Special Forces colonel who leads the black ops team (officially named Task Force X). The film would have been Hardy's second DC movie, following his performance as Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises," and would have been quite a departure from that role. Rather than playing the main villain, he would have served as the one unambiguous hero within the group of supervillains he oversees. The idea of Hardy starring alongside an A-lister like Smith and an up-and-comer like Robbie was also quite enticing.

Ultimately, Tom Hardy dropped out of "Suicide Squad" due to scheduling conflicts with "The Revenant." He was replaced with Joel Kinnaman, whose most notable film credit at the time was as Alex Murphy in the 2014 "RoboCop" remake. Hardy was disappointed to leave the production, citing his initial excitement for the script during a press conference for "Mad Max: Fury Road" in 2015 (via Collider):

"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****** ally 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****** ally. And that whole territory is something that I would certainly — I mean, 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."

Despite his disappointment, Tom Hardy wished his Rick Flag replacement, Joel Kinnaman the best of luck:

"Literally we wrapped in Calgary for now until we go back in July. It would have smashed the two, I would've had a beard. It was just not gonna happen so I got ass-slammed technically out of 'Suicide Squad,' gutted, so I had to hand it over to Joel Kinnaman, who will do an amazing job. It's just I got bumped out, and that's cool that's the way it is."

In August 2016, "Suicide Squad" opened in theaters. Warner Bros. hoped it would be a much-needed step in the right direction for the DCEU, following the shellacking that "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" received earlier that year. While the theatrical cut of "Batman v Superman" was critically reviled and polarized audiences, it at least had a segment of hardcore fans that championed it, with the three-hour-long R-rated "Ultimate Edition" providing a more coherent, complete film closer to what director Zack Snyder intended. The same cannot be said about the theatrical cut of "Suicide Squad," which director David Ayer has publicly disowned.

In a film filled with incoherent and underdeveloped character arcs, including two notoriously bad turns from villains Enchantress (Cara Delevingne) and the worst Joker in cinematic history (Jared Leto), Rick Flag just kinda exists. Joel Kinnaman isn't bringing much to a character with very little to do, and whose main connection to the story is his girlfriend becoming the villain. No disrespect to Kinnaman, who has since proven himself as a remarkable actor, but at the time of this film's production and release, he was less of a draw, while Hardy was a known quantity in the industry. Ultimately, Hardy's talents probably would have gone to waste in "Suicide Squad" as well, and he went on to score an Oscar nomination for his performance in "The Revenant."

Fortunately for Joel Kinnaman, he was given a second chance at playing Rick Flag in James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad." That film was a standalone sequel and soft reboot of the property, and Kinnaman was one of only four actors to reprise their roles from the original. Despite underperforming at the box office, "The Suicide Squad" is a bold, abrasive, and special entry in the canon of comic book adaptations. While the David Ayer film was an example of everything that can go wrong when the visions of the artist and the studio clash, Gunn's film is perhaps the biggest creative statement of his career. It combines his dark, cartoonishly violent indie background with his larger-scale superhero experiences with Marvel Studios, creating something unequivocally his own.

One of the highlights of "The Suicide Squad" is how Rick Flag's character is significantly improved from the original film. Rather than playing him as a generic army guy, Joel Kinnaman gives significantly more personality and charm under James Gunn's vision. We should remain thankful that Kinnaman was granted the opportunity to redeem his character after being woefully misused in his first DCEU appearance, but admittedly, the thought of Tom Hardy as Rick Flag under Gunn's vision is pretty cool to think about. After all, can you imagine Hardy's Flag facing off against John Cena's Peacemaker?