Suicide Squad didn't receive a lot of love from critics, but many fans did enjoy it, and there's a lot of excitement to see more of that first movie's characters in James Gunn's upcoming The Suicide Squad. Among the returnees is Joel Kinnaman's Rick Flag, Amanda Waller's right-hand man, and the soldier who leads Task Force X into battle so he can keep an eye on the villains.
During an interview with CBR, Kinnaman praised Gunn and said that, "when I got the script sent to me, it's so funny. Like every page made me laugh. I was sitting at home reading it laughing out loud."
He went on to say, "We had a great time shooting the first one, but this was something really special. I've never done a comedy before, and this felt like my first comedy. And I think in the first Suicide Squad, I'm not disappointed with my work in there, but...I never played around with it. I felt like I had these parameters that confined me in a way."
"So it was a great feeling for me to do the second one because James just opened up the possibilities for the character, and it became much more comedic. And he really taught me how to find the comedy and where the opportunities for that was. And so it was a great learning experience."
"It was really fun, and both me and James, I think we had a great time working with each other on it," he continued. "I can't wait for people to see that film. I think it's going to be so good. And everything I've heard, the studio is over the moon about the film. And Warner Bros. basically [has] very few notes, like, almost no notes on the director's cut, which is unheard of on a big movie."
It definitely sounds like we're in store for something special with Gunn's take on Task Force X, and it should be a lot of fun exploring Flag's motivations as we get to see him do more than just boss the team around. It definitely sounds like we're getting a slightly more comedic take on the character, and that's no bad thing, especially if Kinnaman gets the chance to show off more of his acting range.
As for what he says about Warner Bros. not really having any notes on Gunn's cut of The Suicide Squad, that points to this reboot/sequel being a big improvement over the 2016 movie.