David Ayer’s Suicide Squad is one of the worst-reviewed films in the superhero genre with a Rotten Tomatoes score of only 26%. Despite the negativity, the film went on to gross $745 million at the box office. And while Suicide Squad boasted an incredible ensemble, there is one actor who (luckily) missed out on the film – Tom Hardy.
The Suicide Squad (2016)
Tom Hardy is no stranger to the superhero genre having played Bane in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy and Venom in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actor was supposed to be a part of Suicide Squad but couldn’t commit thanks to scheduling conflicts. Tom Hardy had to stick with Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant despite getting caught in a scuffle with the filmmaker.

Tom Hardy Was Almost in Suicide Squad

Tom Hardy in The Revenant
Suicide Squad starred incredible actors like Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto, and so on. While the film was already full to the brim with talent Tom Hardy’s involvement could have taken it to the next level. The actor was supposed to play the role of Rick Flagg, the leader of the Suicide Squad, a role Hardy could have easily pulled off.

Unfortunately, the Venom actor had commitments to Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant. The film’s shoot took much longer than expected and thus, Hardy couldn’t be a part of the villainous team-up. Talking to Collider, he stated,
“There’s a very practical element as to why I’ve missed out on that foray [Suicide Squad], which is because Alejandro 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.”
If you think about it, Hardy should have no regrets about not being able to star in Suicide Squad, given the film’s reception. The role then went to Joel Kinnaman.

On the other hand, The Revenant flaunts a 78% score on the Tomatometer and it was also heavily awarded. The film received twelve Oscar nominations, including one for Hardy. Out of the 12, the team took home three awards. Iñárritu took home the Oscar for Best Director.

Tom Hardy Choked the Filmmaker?

Alejandro González Iñárritu

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hardy recalled the difficult experience of working with Iñárritu on the sets of The Revenant. He stated that Iñárritu is unlike any other filmmaker he has ever worked with and that his way of doing things can drive people crazy.
“He’s unlike any director I’ve ever worked with. He sees things how he sees them, so to give him back what he wants is quite an interesting experience. It could drive you f*cking nuts.”
He then went on to describe the scuffle the two had on the set in a humorous and light-hearted manner. He stated,
“When things get a bit too serious, I go, ‘Why don’t we have a cuddle in front of all these people here?’ It ends with both of us falling down in the snow.” 
Hardy even had T-shirts made out of the photograph of him choking the filmmaker.
Tom Hardy sporting a T-shirt of him choking the director
And while Hardy’s side of the story sounds like the duo was having harmless fun, another version of the incident is much darker. According to a Reddit post by a person claiming to have worked on the film, Hardy got “pissed off in an argument with Iñárritu and choked him out. It was a serious fight.” The user added that they made up later and could laugh about it.

However, when Hardy was asked to address these rumors of him losing his cool, he told Sydney Daily Telegraph,
“If I’d have hit Alejandro you’d know about it, everybody would know about it. He wouldn’t look the way he looks today…I’m in the habit of playing villains.”
Well, remind us not to get on Hardy’s nerves! Whatever might have happened between Hardy and Iñárritu, the latter has nothing but love for the former. The filmmaker once stated that while Hardy can look “difficult” on the surface, he is a beautiful, sensitive, loving, human being.

You can stream Suicide Squad on Max and The Revenant is available to rent/buy on Prime Video.