In the early days of Suicide Squad, The Dark Knight Rises star Tom Hardy was on board to play Rick Flagg, right-hand man of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) and leader of the supervillain team. As casting started picking up, however, Hardy had to drop out over scheduling issues. In a new interview, he opens up about the disappointment he felt leaving this film behind.

It all comes down to The Revenant, in which Hardy plays a back-stabbing frontiersman opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. Discussing his Suicide Squad departure in relation to this film with Variety, Hardy said:


"Was I bummed? Of course I was. I hate fucking losing work. I kept bemoaning that they were losing me significant money on a daily basis. Actually, it was good for my character."

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Image via 20th Century Fox

Despite a report that came out suggesting our new Mad Max ditched Suicide Squad after reading a disappointing script, Hardy told Collider earlier this year of the scheduling hiccups with The Revenant. He said at the time:

"There’s a very practical element as to why I’ve missed out on [Suicide Squad], which is because Alejandro [G. Inarritu] has overshot by three months in Calgary, so we’ve got to go back out to Patagonia or Alaska to continue shooting The Revenant which has turned into a much bigger beast than we thought, but that also looks exceptional…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."

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Image via 20th Century Fox

Suicide Squad features Will Smith (Deadshot), Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Jared Leto (Joker), Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang), Adewale Akinuoye-Agbaje (Killer Croc), Cara Delevigne (Enchantress), and more. Directed by David Ayer, the film sees the warden of Belle Reve prison inducting some of her most dangerous inmates into a special task force to execute a secret — and dangerous — mission for the government. Suicide Squad will be released in theaters on August 5, 2016, while The Revenant opens in limited release on Christmas Day.


Watch our full interview with Hardy below, which was conducted during his break from filming Revenant.

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Image via Universal Pictures