Joel Kinnaman Confirms Suicide Squad Role

It’s official – Joel Kinnaman has joined Suicide Squad after rumours that he would take over as Rick Flagg Jr.

During an interview with AlloCine, the 35-year-old Robocop star admitted that he will be starring in the upcoming Suicide Squad movie.

“All I can say is that I will be in the movie,” he said. “And it’s going to be amazing.”

Of course, the hunt has been on for DC character Rick Flagg since Tom Hardy exited the role last year… and has since seen the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal pursued for the role. But with a shortlist including Joel Edgerton and Jon Bernthal, it looks as though Kinnaman pipped them to the post.

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But what does he think of the opportunity to take on a comic book character?

“You want the backstory of the character, but I think this is also a universe that David Ayer is going to create – there’s a lot more,” he told Uproxx. “Also, when you’re doing the first movie in a comic book, you always have the leeway of you’re going to move it from a comic book to a film and put it in real life – you’re always going to make a lot of changes and create a new universe. So you’re kind of setting a precedent. When you’re remaking a movie that’s already been made and a character that was made for the film, then it becomes a different thing and it’s more difficult to create something new without offending some people.”

Although this will be the first big screen outing for the Suicide Squad, the comic books certainly have their fair share of fans. But even so, I can see what Kinnaman means. It’s far easier to make changes to a character when you’re bringing him to the screen for the first time.

And that’s perhaps the charm of the Suicide Squad – we don’t really know what to expect.