It is weird how we just collectively decided to ignore the first time we met Rick Flag. Back in 2016, Joel Kinnaman was essentially a walking tactical vest with a mustache. He was the "straight man" in a movie that was trying way too hard to be edgy, and honestly, the character felt like a placeholder. You could have swapped him out for any generic action lead and the movie wouldn't have changed an inch. But then 2021 happened.
James Gunn stepped in, gave Kinnaman a yellow t-shirt and a personality, and suddenly everyone was crying over a guy they barely noticed five years earlier.
The transformation of Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag is one of those rare Hollywood redemptions where the actor didn't change, but the understanding of who the character actually was did. It wasn't just a costume change. It was a complete structural overhaul of a man who went from being a government puppet to the literal moral compass of the DC Universe.
The Rick Flag Nobody Talks About
If you go back and watch David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, Rick Flag is... fine? He’s a guy who loves June Moone and follows orders. Kinnaman has actually been pretty vocal about this since then. He’s mentioned in interviews that he never really felt "loose" in the character during that first run. It felt restrained. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes chaos with that movie, and Flag ended up being a casualty of a script that didn't know if it wanted to be a gritty war drama or a neon music video.
Kinnaman did the work, though. He did the Navy SEAL training. He went into the woods with 50-pound backpacks and sat through videos of actual cartel violence just to get into the headspace of a hardened commander. All that effort for a character that most people remember mainly for eating chicken in a very aggressive way.
👉 See also: Finding the Best Images of Casper the Friendly Ghost: What Most Fans Get Wrong
Why The Suicide Squad Changed Everything
When Gunn took over for the 2021 spiritual reboot/sequel, he did something smart. He leaned into the fact that Kinnaman is actually funny.
People forget that Kinnaman has serious comedic timing, but he’s usually stuck playing the brooding lead in things like Altered Carbon or For All Mankind. In The Suicide Squad, Rick Flag finally got to be a person. He was still a soldier, but he was a soldier who was tired of the nonsense. He had a "SKWAD" tattoo. He genuinely cared about Harley Quinn in a big-brother sort of way.
The "new" Rick Flag was idealistic. He wasn't just there to keep the villains in line; he was there because he believed in the mission. This is where the Joel Kinnaman Rick Flag evolution hits its peak. He stops being Amanda Waller’s lapdog and starts being the guy who is willing to die to expose the truth about Project Starfish.
📖 Related: Why Marvin the Martian and Bugs Bunny is the Weirdest Rivalry in Animation History
The Death Scene That Actually Mattered
We have to talk about the fight with Peacemaker.
It is arguably the most impactful death in the old DCEU. Sorry to Superman, but Flag’s death felt personal. Watching him get a shard of porcelain driven into his heart while he gasps out, "Peacemaker... what a joke," was a massive gut punch. It wasn't just a shock value death. It was the moment that defined John Cena's character for his entire spin-off series.
Kinnaman played that scene with so much sincerity that it retroactively made his 2016 performance better. It gave the character a tragic arc: the soldier who finally found his soul only to have it taken by a man who claimed to love "peace" above all else.
The Legacy and the "Rick Flag Sr." Factor
Now that we’re in the James Gunn era of the DCU, the shadow of Rick Flag is longer than ever. Frank Grillo is playing Rick Flag Sr. in Creature Commandos and Peacemaker Season 2, and the whole premise is basically a revenge tour for his son’s death.
Kinnaman has been asked a million times if he’s coming back. Usually, he plays it cool. He told the Post-Credit Podcast that he loved the way he went out and that it was a "good way to go." But he’s also joked about coming back as a "nasty villain" or maybe appearing in a flashback.
Gunn and Kinnaman are close friends in real life, so the door never feels truly shut. Even if we never see him in the tactical gear again, the impact of his 2021 performance is what’s driving the plot of the new DCU. Not bad for a character that started out as a "boring" military guy.
👉 See also: The Family Guy Movie 2024: What Most People Get Wrong
What You Should Do Next
If you want to really appreciate what Kinnaman did with this role, there's a specific way to revisit it.
- Watch the 2021 movie first: Don't bother with the 2016 version for a "refresher." Start with the version where the character actually works.
- Pay attention to the small stuff: Look at how Flag interacts with Bloodsport and Ratcatcher 2. It's all in the eyes—Kinnaman plays him like a guy who finally found a family in the worst possible place.
- Bridge into Peacemaker: Watch the first season of Peacemaker immediately after. The way Flag's death haunts Christopher Smith is the best bit of character writing DC has done in a decade.
The reality is that Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag proved that there are no "boring" characters, only underwritten ones. He took a secondary military lead and turned him into the heart of a franchise.