Marvel has been in turmoil for a long time now. In addition to the sudden departure of producer Vitoria Alonso, the aftermath left by the disastrous Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and the internal setbacks around the solo film on Bladethe firm dear to Kevin Feige not doing so well. Especially since in all the pool of characters introduced and faced with the growing number of projects started, some heroes, anti-heroes and villains can remain on the floor… as was the case for Brock Rumlow aka Crossbones (performed by Frank Grillo).
The character was introduced in the highly successful Captain America: The Winter Soldier before returning to Civil War. In the last film mentioned, he was also to play a central role as the first promotional images of the film suggested. In the end, the mad mercenary, who descends the Cape‘ in the comics Civil Warhere is just a shameful fuse who commits suicide after five minutes of screen time during an opening scene that is very largely dispensable.
Civil War will have started out in a pretty filthy tech fair, while sacrificing a pretty promising villain that could very well have been repurposed. Very nasty” down to earth“, an overpowered Crossbones would have been, without a doubt, an interesting figure to bring back in the future Captain America: New World Order taken by Anthony Mackie even join the Thunderbolts of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in the film choir of mcu (2024). Especially since the contract of Frank Grillo with Marvel was far from over.
His last appearance with the mcu dates back to 2019 with Avengers: Endgame. And his contract included an appearance in five other films of the firm. In the end, we will not see him at all since the actor leaves the ship to join a competing firm: the DC universe headed by James Gunn and Peter Safran. It is in the course of an interview with Comicbook.com that the actor returned, bitter, on the non-respect of the treatment of Crossbones and his departure for DC. A reason that can be explained by justifying that Marvel took a 180° turn in the development of Civil War to make a mini movie avengers :
“They never told a story with Crossbones. The mythology of the MCU and what Marvel has in its catalog is so endless. Crossbones was only there for a minute, but he had to be there longer, and then they went in their chosen direction. I think he served his purpose, but I think the interesting thing is people’s positive response to his character, and, again, he wasn’t on screen for long, I think he there was more to tell. I was disappointed, that’s why I went to DC. »
He could join, at the latest news, the animated project Creature Commandos For DC. In any case, it’s a new snub for a disney in the middle of a storm.