Frank Grillo Says Marvel Cinematic Universe Is Done With Crossbones

The Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to be done with Crossbones, which comes as no surprise to fans of the movie franchise but might be news to fans of Captain America comic fans. Crossbones is a major player in many Marvel Comics stories as an adversary to Steve Rogers and other Marvel heroes but played a small part in the MCU through roles in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. With the character having been killed off in the beginning of the latter, Crossbones actor Frank Grillo believes his live-action days with Marvel Studios are behind him.

“They’re done with me,” Grillo told Variety. “Because of the way the stories wound up being told and just how big the stories became, the Crossbones of it wasn’t really part of the future of the Avengers.” Still, fans of Grillo’s Crossbones can at least look forward to seeing him in animated form with the actor lending his voice to the upcoming What If…? series on Disney+.

Grillo has previously expressed a desire to get back into action as Brock Rumlow, aka Crossbones. The actor’s short tenure drummed up quite a bit of buzz with fans but also in the actor. Grillo said in June of 2020 that he would like to see Crossbones make an MCU comeback in the form of a Disney+ show. “I would love to do that just because I have never seen a character be on the screen so little and yet have such a fan following,” he told Forbes about starring in his own Marvel series. “I scratch my head with it sometimes. I have a great relationship with Marvel and the guys there, but why didn’t they, even if it wasn’t with me, pursue that? Why isn’t Crossbones somewhere in the mix?”

He continued, “I think Crossbones was on screen for something like eight or 12 minutes, and you would think that this character was in 75 different movies the way every day people come up to me all day and talk about Crossbones. I’m taking pictures as if I was Captain America.”

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