Joel Kinnaman Promises ‘The Suicide Squad’ Will Live Up To The Hype After First Film Failed To Deliver

Joel Kinnaman expressed his excitement at the upcoming comic book movie The Suicide Squad directed by James Gunn. The Suicide Squad will be a standalone sequel to the first Suicide Squad film from 2016 directed by David Ayer. Kinnaman will reprise his role as the no-nonsense field leader of the titular Suicide Squad, Colonel Rick Flag. He is one of the few people from the first film to return and reprise their role alongside Margot Robbie as the iconic villain turned anti-hero Harleen Qunzel/Harley Quinn, Viola Davis as the ruthless and corrupt organizer of the Suicide Squad Amanda Waller and Jai Courtney as the unstable C-list supervillain Digger Harkness/Captain Boomerang.

Kinnaman revealed to Variety that he was disappointed with how the original Suicide Squad movie turned out, stating that he liked the first 40 minutes, but everything else afterward did not feel right for the actor. “It had great characters…. I thought the first 40 minutes of the film was f—ing great, and then there [were] conflicting visions and it just didn’t end up being what we all hoped it was, you know? It didn’t feel like the movie that we hoped we were going to make,” he said.

Ayer himself revealed his disappointment with how the movie turned out, stating that Warner Bros cut down his film into something that he never wanted it to be. “It got ripped to pieces and they tried to turn it into Deadpool, which it just wasn’t supposed to be,” he said.

Kinnaman has assured fans that Gunn’s soft-reboot makes up for the mistakes that were seen in the first movie. “It just takes it to another level. At the same time, it was very much the movie that I thought it was going to be because the vision was so clear from the beginning.… And while we were shooting it, it was so clear what we were doing. Of course, we were adding a bunch of layers and stuff while we were shooting it. But it’s so entertaining. Of course, [I’m] hopelessly biased, but I found it to be one of the most entertaining films I’ve ever seen.” Kinnaman noted that The Suicide Squad is not necessarily a reboot and still follows the events of the first movie, but it rather takes place in its own separate James Gunn-like world. “It’s just a different universe. It’s a James Gunn universe. It’s a very hilarious and depraved place,” he said.

The Suicide Squad will be simultaneously released on HBO Max and in theaters on August 6.