Suicide Squad has suffered its first casualty.  Tom Hardy has dropped out of David Ayer's star-studded film, which revolves around a team of DC Comics supervillains teaming up to perform a dirty job for the government in exchange for pardons.  Hardy was set to play military expert and the group's leader Rick Flagg, but The Wrap reports that Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant is going over schedule into mid March, and then Hardy will have to start promoting Mad Max: Fury Road.

Thankfully, another talented actor may be stepping into the role with Jake Gyllenhall possibly reteaming with his End of Watch director for the film.  Hit the jump for more.  Suicide Squad opens August 5, 2016, and also stars Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Jai Courtney, and Cara Delevinge.

According to The Wrap, Warner Bros. is courting the Oscar-nominated (but not today) star.  The site is also reporting that Jesse Eisenberg is still in talks to reprise his role as Lex Luthor, but The Wrap also reports that Viola Davis is in negotiations to play Amanda Waller, which is odd since last week it sounded like she was on board and it was just a matter of working the movie into her schedule.

If Gylleenhaal signs on, he'll definitely have the physique for the part as he recently packed on a ton of muscle to play a boxer in Antoine Fuqua's Southpaw.

Here's Evan's description of how Rick Flagg is portrayed in the comics:

Flagg isn’t a criminal like the rest of the villains, but is a man who’s attempting to do what’s right and comes from a line of “Rick Flaggs” that began in World War II. He tends to clash heads with Deadshot over leadership of the team in the field, so obviously the gang is quite an unruly mob at times with so many insane personalities clashing.  Think of Flagg as being the DCU’s Nick Fury, getting into the thick of things while also acting as something of a liaison between the team and Amanda Waller.