DCU Actor Says Superman Continuity Error Will Be Addressed in Next Appearance

Actor Frank Grillo was taken aback by fans’ reaction to his appearance in Superman. The 60-year-old actor is one of the only stars in this movie who is not making his DC Universe debut — he has already played Rick Flag Sr. in Creature Commandos, where he was animated with gray and white hair. However, in Superman, Flag is shown with black hair though we know this movie takes place chronologically after Creature Commandos. In an interview with IGN this weekend marking the Superman premiere, Grillo explained that he needed to keep his hair black for another role he was filming back-to-back with Superman. However, he said he expects his hair to be white for real the next time he makes a live-action appearance in the DCU.

“I think the next time — if they don’t fire me — the next time I’m in something, it’s white hair,” he predicted. “I was on another show, Tulsa King, and it was literally back-to-back, and during, and so I couldn’t!” Grillo added that the internet in general was “very mean about my dark hair,” though he didn’t seem too hurt by the backlash.

In the comments, some fans pointed out that Flag was also severely injured at the end of Creature Commandos, and that even with months between the two stories, his full recovery is a bit miraculous. However, others argued that this could be explained away by his access to the most high-tech medical treatment on earth. Flag is now the head of A.R.G.U.S., the shady government organization behind projects like Task Force M. He is also a high-ranking military general, which is the role he plays on screen in Superman.

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The outcry over Grillo’s hair actually goes back months, as we first glimpsed him in a Superman trailer in late 2024. Fans were disturbed by the presence of any inconsistency this early in the DCU, no matter how minor. It’s a sign of how badly DC fans have been burned before, and how much they wanted a win this time around. Fortunately, Grillo’s hair doesn’t seem to have set the movie back too far — it opened at $217 million this weekend, and critics have been generally positive.

We’ll see Flag again very soon in the DCU, and that will give us a chance to determine if Grillo was telling the truth. He is set to appear in Peacemaker Season 2, premiering on HBO Max on August 21st. Season 1 is streaming there now, and Superman is playing in theaters everywhere.