Summary
Creature Commandoshas been a great success so far on Max. One prominent member of the Amanda Waller-led menagerie has even bagged some pretty flattering comparisons to an important player in the MCU, and the man behind the role certainly sees the resemblance.
Creature Commandosmanaged tonet a stellar Rotten Tomatoes score early on, and the first half of the season has borne that out with ease. Poised as the very first salvo in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DCU arsenal, the show had a lot of pressure on it to deliver, and it has. Prominent among the reasons for this success if the cast of the show, with both the fictional team of rogues and the talented voice actors behind them giving fans a great time beforeSupermanushers in the live-action part of the franchise in 2025.
Since Gunn took over as DC Studios head, there’s been an uptick in comparisons between his preliminary work and the MCU, with fans pointing out similarities both real and imagined. A more recent recipient of these comparisons is Frank Grillo,who closed the door on his live-action MCU character for goodbefore being cast by Gunn in his prominent new role in the DCU. Grillo’s performance as Rick Flag Sr. on Gunn’s first official DCU project has drawn a lot of positive comparisons to the legendary Samuel L. Jackson’s longtime role as Nick Fury in the MCU.
In an interview with the cast of Creature Commandos, available for viewing on theRottenTomatoesTV YouTube channel, Grillo offered his view on why the two characters give off a similar vibe despite being in vastly different universes and (for now) different mediums. “…I think what mirrors the kind of Sam Jackson vibe is just that he’s integrated into so many of the stories,” Grillo explains. “And like Sam Jackson, who seems to be in every single movie ever made, aside from even Marvel, James has done the same thing intertwining Rick Flag Sr. in a very cool way, specifically in ‘Peacemaker.'”
Grillo also briefly touched on another similarity, discussing how his take on the character in Creature Commandos differs from his other appearance, similar to how Fury changes over the course of the MCU’s events.
Like, I’m a very specific, very different kind of Rick Flag in ‘Peacemaker’ than I am in ‘Creature Commandos,’ kind of a little bit more evolved. And that’s the same with Sam Jackson. It’s the same thing that they did with Sam Jackson; he was kind of the throughline for a lot of the movies or at least the familiar line for a lot of the movies.
WithCreature Commandos a few weeks away from the season finale, fans can still keep an eye out for the subtle changes that Grillo implemented for the show. Any comparison to Samuel L. Jackson is certainly cause for celebration, and his role as Nick Fury has come to define the most recent era of his stellar career. Fury has been a mainstay of the MCU since its proper inception as a true franchise, and he evengot his own Disney+ show recentlyas a testament to just how vital a character he is in the MCU to this day.
WhileSecret Invasionwasn’t a home run by any standard, the gesture means everything in this case, and Fury certainly earned it. While it’s still early days at DC Studios, and there are several years’ worth of projects and plot lines that Grillo has to play a part in to get the Nick Fury cred for Flag,Creature Commandoshas certainly been a good start for him, and his comments seem to suggest that Gunn has revealed even more than fans can know about what he has in store for the character going forward.
There’s no doubt thatCreature Commandosbodes well for the future of Gunn’s DCU, and Grillo’s Rick Flag is certainly a big part of the reason for that. Fans will certainly be excited to have him as the constant for Gunn’s DCU as more projects unfurl and things get more complex. If the DCU can manage to stick the landing this time around, Rick Flag just might get to be on the same level as Nick Fury in a few years.
Creature Commandosis currently available to stream on Max, with new episodes released on Thursdays.
