Frank Grillo Wants His MCU Villain Recast for a Good Reason

With a major role in James Gunn’s DC Universe as Rick Flag Sr., Frank Grillo is hoping that fans are ready to move on with him from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Before he jumped to DC, Grillo became known within the comic book community for his role as Brock Rumlow within the MCU. He first appeared in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which revealed that Rumlow was one of the many S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who were secretly part of HYDRA. Grillo reprised Rumlow, now operating as the villainous Crossbones, in the 2016 sequel, Captain America: Civil War, which featured the character’s death. However, that didn’t prevent Grillo from returning for Avengers: Endgame (2019) and animated series What If…? (2021), which featured alternate variants of Rumlow.

What did Frank Grillo say about Crossbones in the MCU?

In a recent interview with GQ, Grillo reflected on his time in the MCU, admitting that “Crossbones never manifested into what it should have. But Crossbones was cool because he wasn’t a superhero, he was just a bad mofo, and he got his licks in.” The actor also shared that he cannot go a day without someone calling him “Crossbones” in public, much to his continued surprise. “I’m like, Really? That’s so fucking long ago, and it’s not that much screen time. So it is interesting that it’s becoming a legacy thing,” he remarked.

Despite Crossbones continuing to appear in the comics, as well as rumors of an MCU reboot after Avengers: Secret Wars, Grillo has no interest in reprising the role, claiming that Marvel Studios needs to find “a younger Crossbones.”

The actor is still happy to have been part of the MCU, though, revealing that he considers The Winter Soldier to be “the best Marvel movie.” There is also no ill will between him and Marvel, with Grillo adding, “I love them over at Marvel, and it’s so great to see how successful everybody’s become, but I hope that they can get back to the glory of where they were and not just be spectacles that are there to make a lot of money from.”

Grillo can currently be seen in Peacemaker Season 2, which is dropping a new episode every Thursday on HBO Max through October 9, 2025.

Originally reported by Lee Freitag for SuperHeroHype.

Source: Comingsoon.net