Last night, director David Ayer released the first full cast image for the DC Comics adaptation Suicide Squad. The film revolves around a team of villains that are tasked with carrying out dangerous missions for the government in exchange for commuted sentences. The ensemble is certainly eclectic, with Will Smith as Deadshot, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, and Jared Leto as The Joker, but the cast nearly had yet another incredibly talented actor onboard: Tom Hardy.

Hardy was in talks to take on the role of Rick Flagg, the leader of the Suicide Squad, but he was subsequently forced to drop out over scheduling conflicts. Joel Kinnaman eventually took over the role, but when Steve recently spoke with Hardy at the press day for Mad Max: Fury Road, the actor discussed his fondness for the script and concept for Suicide Squad (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 fucking 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 fucking 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.”

While some rumors surfaced that Hardy was unhappy with the direction of the script and that’s why he dropped out of Suicide Squad, the actor reveals that schedule overruns on The Revenant are really and truly to blame:

“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.”

The Revenant is Inarritu’s 1800s-set revenge drama about frontiersmen, with Leonardo DiCaprio playing a man left for dead by Hardy’s character. The picture is, of course, Inarritu’s follow-up to winning Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture at this year’s Oscars, but even though it started shooting last September and is set for release this December, it won’t be fully wrapped until this summer due to issues with the weather:

“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.”

So Hardy is clearly a bit bummed to have missed out on Suicide Squad (and as a big fan of his work, as am I), but The Revenant is hopefully shaping up to be a worthwhile endeavor regardless. Look for more from Steve’s interview with Hardy on Collider soon.