Joel Kinnaman just closed the book on one of DC’s most beloved characters, and he did it with the kind of casual certainty that makes it feel very final indeed.
Joel Kinnaman confirms Peacemaker Season 2 was his last appearance as Rick Flag Jr. in the DCU
Speaking to Screen Rant in a new interview, Kinnaman was asked directly whether audiences had seen the last of his version of Rick Flag Jr. His answer was short, unambiguous, and just a little bit funny.
“I would say so,” he confirmed. He then added that the Peacemaker version of Flag was always a slightly different creature from the one fans knew from the films, describing him as “an alternate universe, mealy-mouthed Rick,” explaining that this was what he and James Gunn had privately called the character between themselves.
The whole return was something Kinnaman had not seen coming. He revealed that Gunn had called him out of the blue, knowing the actor had been wanting to flex his comedic muscles, and simply asked if he wanted to come in for “this little fun thing.”
Kinnaman did not need much convincing. “We’re friends, so we talk every now and then. He just called me and asked if I wanted to come in, and he was like, ‘This is this little fun thing I’d love for you to do.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll come play with you anytime.'”
What made the cameo all the more remarkable was how well the secret held. Kinnaman admitted he could barely believe it stayed under wraps, given how tightly Warner Bros. tends to manage these things.
He also credited Gunn’s long-range thinking, revealing he had no idea the director had always planned for Flag to resurface during Season 2. “He’s a mad genius, so it’s hard to know what goes on in that crazy brain of his.”
Rick Flag Jr. first appeared in David Ayer’s 2016 Suicide Squad and returned for James Gunn’s 2021 soft reboot, The Suicide Squad, where John Cena’s Peacemaker killed the character.
The resurrection for Season 2, set in an alternate timeline, gave fans one last glimpse of the character done properly and gave Kinnaman a chance to say goodbye on his own terms.
With Flag firmly in the rearview mirror, Kinnaman has moved on to a packed slate that includes the film Icefall, the Apple TV+ series Imperfect Women, and Netflix’s Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole, as well as the ongoing fifth season of For All Mankind, which concludes on Apple TV+ on May 29.
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