Tom Hardy Praises ‘Suicide Squad’, Explains Why He Had To Drop Out

Despite already being a film into their cinematic universe, DC is still quite in the infant stages. Unlike Marvel, they have to go the extra mile to earn their credibility among fans, as they don’t quite have the body of work that Marvel does just yet. It’s hard to blame fans for being a bit uneasy when they announced Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad as their next two films. Having grown comfortable with Marvel’s tried-and-true formula of creating standalone films leading up to a team-up film, doing anything different almost seems like rushing the process. Suicide Squad is perhaps the biggest risk of all, since it had very few characters the mainstream public would recognize. Getting big stars to fill the boots of these characters was essential in order to secure butts-in-seats at the theater. To help fill this need, DC was quick to cast big stars like Will Smith, Jared Leto, and Tom Hardy. However, not long after Hardy’s being cast, he promptly dropped out of the project.

Hardy’s reason for dropping out of Suicide Squad was definitely a bit of a hit. His presence helped to lend a bit of credibility to the picture, especially after his performance as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, and having him leave made many doubt the picture’s quality. According to Cinema Blend, there were a number of not-so-great reasons he pulled out.

“According to sources, Hardy was unhappy with the final script, and a drastic change to his character, Rick Flag. Rumor is that the latest draft upped Will Smith and Jared Leto’s screen time.”

Given that Tom Hardy is an actor with an increasing demand, it would make sense he’d prefer to dedicate his time to lead roles over ensemble roles like the one in Suicide Squad–after all, 2015 will mark the year he begins leading his own franchise with Mad Max: Fury Road.

A recent interview Hardy had with Collider, however, paints a very different picture. (Note: “Alley” means “right up there with the best.”)

“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**king alley 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**king alley. And that whole territory is something that I would certainly—I mean, everybody loves The Joker. 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.”

“There’s a very practical element as to why I’ve missed out on that foray, 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.”

If everything Hardy says here is true, fans will have a lot to look forward to come 2016 when Suicide Squad hits theaters.

Do you believe Tom Hardy’s explanation of why he left the film, and are you looking forward to it? Let us know below!

[Image Credits: The Movie Network, David Ayer]