Marvel fans love nothing better than to rag on the MCU about its myriad faults, but it seems they don’t like it when other people do the same. Especially stars of the franchise themselves who use the fact they’re joining the rival DC universe to bear all their ill will towards Marvel Studios. The star in question is Frank Grillo, known to superhero lovers as Brock Rumlow aka Crossbones.
While confirming rumors that he’s joined the voice cast for James Gunn’s upcoming DC animated series Creature Commandos, Grillo admitted to ComicBook.com that he thinks Marvel massively dropped the ball with his character, considering the supervillain’s popularity around the globe, and that he was “disappointed” with the short stick he was given. As he put it:
“They never told a story [about Crossbones]. The mythology of the MCU and just what Marvel has in its pool of characters, it’s so deep. Crossbones was there for a minute, but he was supposed to be there longer, then they went the direction they did. I think Crossbones serves a purpose, but I think the interesting thing is that if you see how many people around the world have responded to Crossbones, and again, he’s on the screen for a very f–king short amount of time, I think there’s more there. I think there was more meat on the bone. I was disappointed, which is why I went over to DC.”
As Grillo alludes to, Crossobones is one of Captain America’s most popular enemies from the comics, so fans would’ve loved to have seen more from him in the MCU too. Having said that, in a Reddit thread discussing Grillo’s comments, a lot of folks weren’t entirely sympathetic to the actor’s cause and felt that he actually did pretty well out of the cinematic universe as it was.
Others think that Marvel was totally right not to utilize him more, considering that the movie version of Crossbones is nowhere near as cool as the comic book character.
Some were even harsher, voicing their opinion that we haven’t been “missing out on anything special” by his absence.
Many of the “biggest names in Hollywood” have been shortchanged far more than Grillo, it has to be said. Where’s Glenn Close been since Guardians of the Galaxy?
While his screentime might not have been as chunky as he hoped, maybe Grillo should realize that Crossbones has an enormous impact on the MCU. His death kicked off the Sokovia Accords, which led to the break-up of the Avengers, which fed into Avengers: Infinity War, which fed into Endgame…
Grillo debuted as Rumlow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier before returning as the costumed Crossbones in Civil War and then again via time travel in Endgame. Not to mention a voice cameo in an episode of What If…? season one. If you think about it, that makes him one of the most recurring villains in the MCU.
