The Suicide Squad Cast Reveal - Predicting EVERY Character
13. Joel Kinnaman - Rick Flag
Warner Bros. Pictures
Joel Kinnaman's turn as Rick Flag in the first Suicide Squad was neither here nor there in that it was also probably the most inoffensive thing about the film itself; a bland male establishment figure to anchor the movie against the colourful (and much more entertaining weirdos) moviegoers came to see.
However, Flag is still an essential component of Task Force X, and one who needs to stay for the sequel. He'll still be the same, gruff by-the-numbers military type and that's because he has to be. There really isn't that much else to him.
That isn't to say that the film can't expand upon the character further, though. Flag, while a military stalwart, has a unique relationship with the Squad and one that fundamentally alters how he perceives his own service. There's clear potential to extract a more nuanced portrayal in the sequel in that sense, and one Gunn will be eager to pursue once filming commences.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and the Golden Age of Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled.
