Rick Flag was one of only four characters from David Ayer's 2016 film to return for James Gunn's The Suicide Squad along with Harley Quinn, Amanda Waller and Boomerang, but things didn't work out so well for the honourable military man.
Unfortunately, Corto Maltese marked Flag's final mission, as he was killed by Peacemaker (John Cena) after threatening to leak the Starro files. While it wouldn't exactly be unheard of for a comic book movie character to return from the dead, we had assumed that the chances of seeing Kinnaman back in the role were very slim.
Then, earlier this year, Peacemaker season 2 director Peter Sollett tagged Joel Kinnaman in his social media post announcing that he'd completed filming his episodes, seemingly confirming that the actor was set to reprise his role for the Max spin-off series.
Screen Rant asked Kinnaman about this while chatting to him about his new movie, The Silent Hour, and the actor gave a surprisingly blunt response.
"I don't know what to say. That's ridiculous. I would never. I would never be on a show like that. It's not what I do. It's not what I do."
We can only assume that Kinnaman is being deliberately, well, bitchy here in an effort to keep his return under wraps... unless he actually feels that a show like Peacemaker is beneath him!
We know that Frank Grillo is set to appear as Rick Flag Sr., and reports indicate that he will target Christopher Smith for killing his son. So, if Kinnaman is set to reprise his role, it will most likely be for flashbacks - although that's not the only possible scenario.
Though the photo has since been removed, a mural was recently spotted on set featuring John Cena's Peacemaker (wearing a slightly different costume), his father in his White Dragon outfit, and a mysterious third character who many believe will turn out to be Christopher Smith's brother, Keith.
We do know that Robert Patrick is set to return as Augee Smith despite being killed off in the season 1 finale, and it would explain James Gunn's comments about season 1 not being part of the DCU.
Rather than simply pretending certain events (the Justice League cameos, for example) didn't happen, Gunn might be planning to bring Peacemaker and the supporting characters into a whole new reality - one in which Flag Jr. is still alive.
"Peacemaker explores the continuing story of the character that John Cena reprises in the aftermath of executive producer James Gunn's 2021 film The Suicide Squad – a compellingly vainglorious man who believes in peace at any cost, no matter how many people he has to kill to get it!"
Gunn, Peter Safran, and Matt Miller are the series' executive producers. Co-executive producer John Cena and consulting producer Stacy Littlejohn are also involved in the production of the show.
Peacemaker is set to return to our screens in the later half of 2025.