Frank Grillo has already made a small piece of movie history, as one of the few actors to play a major role in both an MCU and a DCU movie. However, it turns out there was an even closer connection between his two roles than we realized.
Frank Grillo played Crossbones for Marvel Studios before his recent appearances as Rick Flag Sr. (in both animation and live-action) for James Gunn’s DCU. Both roles ended up requiring his character to arrest a superhero. He took Captain America into custody in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and he arrested the Man of Steel in Superman as well. Hilariously, as Grillo told Brandon Davis, the two scenes were shot only blocks apart in Cleveland. Grillo said…
By the way, we shot Captain America right there. Yeah, we shot on that street. I arrested Captain America down the block! Isn’t that crazy? Right down the block was when I nabbed Captain America.
Of all the coincidences that could crop up in filmmaking, this one is pretty incredible. While Cleveland isn’t an uncommon location for filming movies, it’s not like Southern California or Georgia, where there are major studios available. The fact that both movies were filmed there at all is interesting enough, but both movies having similar scenes that involved the same actor, what are the odds? No seriously, somebody who’s better at math please tell me what the odds are.
Grillo was never shy about admitting he was a little frustrated with the way Crossbones was used in the MCU. There were apparently plans, or at least conversations, about making him a bigger bad guy for Captain America, but they never materialized. The character was somewhat unceremoniously killed off in Captain America: Civil War and never seen again.
Frank Grillo has already had a more significant impact on the DCU, which only just began this year, than he ever did on Marvel. He’s the one actor who has been part of all three pieces of the DCU so far, voicing Rick Flag Sr. in the animated Creature Commandos, and then appearing in live-action in both Superman and Peacemaker Season 2. And yet, it brought him back to where his superhero journey started, arresting a superhero in a blue costume on a street in Cleveland. The more things change…
With a Superman sequel on the way, and with Cleveland officially standing in for Metropolis, filming will likely return there. And considering how big a part Grillo has been of the DCU already, there’s a pretty good chance he’ll be back for it. Years and universes apart, but Frank Grillo will always get his man, and he will apparently always get him on Superior Street in Cleveland.