There were a heck of a lot of new characters introduced in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but we had an inkling that one of its antagonists would be back. Frank Grillo’s Brock Rumlow, aka Crossbones, seemed likely to return for the impending Civil War, in light of how the film’s ending teased his character. While Marvel hasn’t yet officially announced the character, Grillo has already confirmed our suspicions, and he recently further teased his involvement.
The most recent teases started coming a couple days ago when the actor tweeted the following:
Though he doesn’t outright say he’s coming back for Civil War — we are all aware of the tricks actors pull to avoid revealing secrets prematurely — this was a pretty obvious hint. To make things even more clear cut, he then retweeted a blog post someone wrote, titled "Frank Grillo Returning For Civil War." On top of that, he also posted a comic art image of Crossbones battling Captain America, along with the caption, "A line has been drawn. Do you have the balls to cross it?"
As far as I’m concerned, this is all the confirmation we need: Crossbones is coming back for Captain America: Civil War.
We saw Rumlow reveal himself to be a Hydra agent in The Winter Soldier. After grappling with Cap and his buddies, he is crushed by the rubble of a crumbling building after a scuffle with Anthony Mackie’s Falcon. This left him brutally beaten, but alive. We last saw his flesh scarred, as his body lay on a stretcher. Grillo spoke about his Crossbones return in an interview with Entertainment Weekly earlier this year.
[Winter Soldier] was only a taste of what’s to come with the next film, and I couldn’t be more humbled and excited.
It’s unclear whether Civil War will see him transform into his iconic comic book counterpart, or whether he’ll have donned the mask prior to the events of the film. Regardless, we’re glad to see him in the mix, though this does add to the Russo brothers’ task at hand. There’s already a lot going on in Civil War. The main storyline is ripped from the pages of the comics and features Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) coming to physical blows over a controversial new law. The government wants all super-powered beings to reveal themselves and report to S.H.I.E.L.D., which sounds eerily like the Mutant Registration Act of the X-Men comics. (That didn’t end so well.) This splits the superhero world into two sides, and a slew of characters will be making appearances. Among them are Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Black Widow, Hawkeye, Falcon and Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier. Marvel and Sony’s new Spider-Man is also said to make his first appearance, while Daniel Bruhl will debut as comic villain Baron Zemo.
Needless to say, Joe and Anthony Russo have their work cut out for them. And that’s before they direct the two-part Infinity War.
