After making his animated debut as Rick Flag Sr. in the HBO Max subscription-exclusive series Creature Commandos, Frank Grillo played his DC Universe character for the first time in live-action in Superman last month. However, there was one key difference between his big and small screen depictions: hair color. Flag was rocking Grillo’s normal black hair in Superman despite having white hair in Creature Commandos, and the actor has shared the reason why this color change, which evidently some didn’t handle well, happened.
Grillo explained to IGN that this stemmed from how his work on Superman overlapped with filming the Sylvester Stallone-led series Tulsa King. As such, playing Bill Bevilaqua on the Paramount+ subscription-exclusive show necessitated that his hair remain the same color, continuity issues in the DC Universe aside. As the actor recalled:
I think the next time, if they don’t fire me, the next time I’m in something, it’s white hair. I was on another show, Tulsa King, and it was literally back-to-back and during [production on Superman], so I couldn’t. And people really were not happy with that…. They were very mean about my dark hair.
For the average moviegoer, Rick Flag Sr. having black hair isn’t a big deal, as they were just meeting the newly-appointed ARGUS director for the first time. But for those already familiar with him from Creature Commandos, I can understand why they’d be confused by rhetorical sudden change. Still, did people really have to be mean in front of Frank Grillo about it? It’s not like he made the decision to avoid the white hair. Besides, James Gunn already provided an in-universe explanation for this by telling Collider that Flag dies his hair for vanity reasons.
By the way, Rick Flag Sr.’s black hair isn’t going away, as we’ll continue seeing it when Peacemaker Season 2 premieres on the 2025 TV schedule next month. However, it sounds like for the next project Flag appears in after that, Frank Grillo will advocate for his character finally boasting white hair. Let’s just hope that 1, nothing bad happens to Flag in the next batch of Peacemaker episodes, and 2, Grillo doesn’t have to deal with scheduling overlaps with Tulsa King again.
Rick Flag Sr. was last seen in Superman watching the Justice Gang thwart Boravia’s invasion of Jarhanpur, and Peacemaker Season 2 will see him looking to exact revenge on John Cena’s title character for killing his son, as depicted in 2021’s The Suicide Squad. The new season premieres on HBO Max August 21, and Tulsa King Season 3 will premiere September 21 on Paramount+.