When I spoke to directors Joe and Anthony Russo about Frank Grillo's role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier at San Diego Comic-Con this past summer they couldn't have been more complimentary. Calling him "an amazing actor with incredible intensity" and noting his personal skills as a trained boxer, the filmmakers talked up the actor's performance and likened his part as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones to being an interesting and exciting character that you would find in an Oliver Stone film. From their words I got the sense that we can expect something very cool in Grillo's performance, but judging from recent comments made by the actor the Captain America sequel may just be a launching pad.
Speaking about the blockbuster comic book flick with Crave Online while promoting his new film Homefront, Grillo suggested that The Winter Soldier won't be the last time that we see his character involved in the Marvel Universe. Asked how much his character actually appears in the full movie after only having a brief appearance in the teaser trailer, Grillo responded,
"It’s an origin film. You meet people who are going to be around for a while, so they introduce the characters. It’s almost like it’s a series. It’s fun. I can’t say very much about it because Marvel’s very strict about what you’re allowed to say. The movie, we’ve seen bits of it, and it is spectacular."
By itself this quote isn't 100% clear, as it's entirely possible that Grillo is talking about every other character in the movie with the exception of himself, but the actor made himself very clear later in the interview. After dismissing the idea that he could show up on the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., he was asked if Marvel Studios has plans to feature more of Brock/Crossbones in future movies, to which he said, "They do actually. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see if the fans respond to Brock and how it goes."
One area that everyone continues to be very hush-hush about is Crossbones' aesthetic appearance in the movie. As you can see in the image at the top of this article and the trailer at the bottom, we have already gotten to see glimpses of Grillo as Brock Rumlow, but his look as his pseudonym alter-ego is an interesting mystery. When I asked the question at Comic-Con Joe Russo described it as something "you’ll have to go see the movie to find out [about]," while the actor told Crave in the recent interview, "I can’t say any of that because they will fire me." Basically, expect Crossbones to be one of the movie's biggest surprises.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is based on a script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, stars Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Emily VanCamp, Hayley Atwell, Robert Redford and Samuel L. Jackson, and the film will be in theaters on April 4, 2014.
