Frank Grillo has taken to Instagram to confirm that he will return as Rick Flag Sr. in James Gunn's Man of Tomorrow.
The Captain America: Civil War actor made his DCU debut voicing the character in the animated Creature Commandos series, before returning for a supporting role in Superman. In Peacemaker season 2, Flag - who had taken over as the head of A.R.G.U.S. - targeted Chris Smith (John Cena), seeking revenge for the murder of his son (Joel Kinnaman) in The Suicide Squad.
If you haven't seen the season 2 finale of Peacemaker yet, major spoilers follow.
Peacemaker season 2 concluded with Smith and the rest of the 11th Street Kids, along with Judomaster and A.R.G.U.S. Agents Sasha Bordeaux and Langston Fleury, founding Checkmate, and a vengeance-fuelled Rick Flag Sr. establishing his villainous turn by kidnapping Chris and stranding him in Salvation, the Earth-like dimension Flag intends to use as a prison for the planet's metahumans.
We assume that Flag is going to continue down this path, so don't be surprised if he winds up as an adversary of the Man of Steel in MOT - at least until the movie's mysterious big bad (possibly Brainiac) puts everyone on Earth on notice.
Gunn was asked if his Superman follow-up will directly address Peacemaker's fate during a recent interview with Rolling Stone.
"No, no, no. But people should expect that the way that the military and Rick Flagg and everybody are working together and they’ve created a probably illegal prison for metahumans on another dimension is gonna be a part of DCU stories going forward. And not just a tertiary, ‘Oh, this is Arkham’ — it’s a part of the stories. There’s an escalating war, obviously, that’s going on between the government and metahumans. And this is a part of it."
Gunn has confirmed that the events of the finale are building towards his own take on DC Comics' Salvation Run, a six-issue miniseries that saw the government exile some of Earth's most dangerous metahuman criminals to the planet Cygnus 4019 (Salvation). Separate factions are formed as the villains struggle to survive and attempt to discover a means of escape.
If we will be revisiting Salvation in MOT, Flag is sure to be involved. Rumors persist that Cena will also appear in the movie, so there's a chance Gunn is simply trying to throw fans off track.
Peacemaker season 2 follows Chris Smith, the vigilante superhero, as he struggles to reconcile his past with his newfound sense of purpose while continuing to kick righteous evildoer butt in his misguided quest for peace at any cost. He discovers an alternate world where life is everything he wishes it could be. But this discovery also forces him to face his traumatic past and take the future into his own hands.
"The new season follows Christopher 'Chris' Smith, aka Peacemaker, the vigilante Super Hero as he struggles to reconcile his past with his newfound sense of purpose while continuing to kick righteous evil-doer butt in his misguided quest for peace at any cost.
In season 2, Peacemaker discovers an alternate world where life is everything he wishes it could be. But this discovery also forces him to face his traumatic past and take the future into his own hands.”