When Tom Hardy made a sudden departure from Warner Brothers' Suicide Squad last week, it was attributed to a schedule clash with another movie.

However it has now been reported that the British star was actually in a huff after seeing his role cut in a revised version of the script.

The 37-year-old star had been set to play Rick Flagg - with Jared Leto as The Joker, Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn.

Latino Review reports: "According to sources, He simply didn't like the script he was finally given, he didn't like the drastic change to the character. Like we figured, the scheduling conflict is a cover story, so he left the project under amicable terms.

"The rumour is the latest draft of Suicide Squad has upped the screen time of Deadshot and The Joker at the expense of the lesser-villains in the movie like Rick Flagg.

"This also may have contributed to Hardy's exit."

Warner Brothers is now reported to be chasing Jake Gyllenhaal for the role.

The movie is slated for release next August.