Frank Grillo first delved into the superhero genre when he played Frank Grillo, a.k.a. Crossbones, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s safe to say, though, that his role as Rick Flag Sr. in the DC Universe is giving him a lot more to do. We’ve already heard him as the character in the Max subscription-exclusive animated series Creature Commandos, and he’s returning in James Gunn’s Superman next month, followed by Peacemaker Season 2 when it premieres on the 2025 TV schedule in August. Grillo is already quite comfortable declaring he prefers Flag to Crossbones, and explained his reasoning in a recent interview.
With Superman’s impending arrival just a handful of weeks away on the 2025 movies schedule, Frank Grillo discussed playing Rick Flag Sr. while taking part in the Tulsa King panel at Fan EXPO Dallas (via ScreenRant). The actor, who stars as Bill Bevilaqua in the crime drama series streamable with a Paramount+ subscription, shared why he’s found his DCU role more fulfilling, saying:
Rick Flag Sr... It was unfortunate because Crossbones isn't onscreen that much, and this is years ago. People love that character, and Marvel seems to have reused every other character except Crossbones. Now he's popping up in Spider-Man comics and Daredevil comics because he's a great villain, so I was expecting to have a lot of fun with it. But unfortunately, he perished kind of quickly. But I love working with James Gunn. I did the voice for Creature Commandos, and then I'm in Peacemaker, which is coming up in August. And before that, it's Superman with Rick Flag. So, it's different; it's more of an adventure than the Marvel stuff was.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier set up Brock Rumlow as one of the many HYDRA operative embedded within S.H.I.E.L.D, and at the end of that movie, the groundwork was laid for him to become Crossbones. However, the supervillain was then quickly killed off at the beginning of Captain America: Civil War, and Grillo has since only played alternate timeline/universe versions of the character in Avengers: Endgame and a few episodes of What If… ?. He expected Crossbones to be a meatier role, but that didn’t end up happening.
In contrast, Frank Grillo has been given much more do as Rick Flag Sr., which is remarkable considering the DC Universe only began a little over half a year ago. However, with Flag looking like he’s serving as a Nick Fury-type figure in this franchise, it makes sense to seed him into these different corners. These latest comments remind me of when Grillo said last December that he likes the DCU over the MCU because it’s more “contained” and “personal.”
We’ll see how Frank Grillo does in live-action as Rick Flag Sr. when Superman and Peacemaker Season 2 arrive to our big and small screens, respectively. We can also count on him to reprise Flag vocally again whenever Creature Commandos Season 2 is released to Max.
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