In a Reddit thread dedicated solely to the impact of Rick Flag’s death in “The Suicide Squad,” u/TheOtherDaleT praised how the plot move had meaning, as it continued to play out in director James Gunn’s “Peacemaker” spinoff show on Max. “Definitely worked and what I liked best was that it wasn’t just a shock death and then forgotten. It played a big part in [Peacemaker’s] growth as a character in his series.”
Somewhat echoing u/TheOtherDaleT’s sentiments, u/AgDA22 posted, “It was the only impactful death from the whole DC universe IMO.” Also commenting on the effect of Flag’s demise, u/SunkenEight wrote how Flag was a character audiences could connect with and as such, it was the best death scene in the DC Extended Universe of films. In addition, they wrote that the showdown between Flag and Peacemaker was one of the best fight scenes in the DCEU.
Other Redditors like u/Rdambx praised the impact Flag’s final line had before his death, posting, “‘Peacemaker. What a joke’ is easily one of the best lines of the old DCEU.” While Flag’s death was meaningful to many fans, some like u/kyp-the-laughing-man said his loss was the worst one to take.
As for his future in the new DC Universe, Joel Kinnaman’s idea of returning as a nasty villain could very well happen considering James Gunn is now leading the revamped DCU. The filmmaker after all, has been known to cast actors he’s worked with before in his films, which is part of the reason why every Gunn movie looks so familiar.
