WhenThe Purgehit theaters in 2013, Universal could not have predicted just how big of a success the Blumhouse thriller would be. Against a budget of just $3 million, it grossed $89 million worldwide, and its premise offered evergreen sequel opportunities. Thus,The Purge: Anarchywas born. The follow-up was even more successful, grossing $111 million worldwide, but audiences alsoreallyresponded to a new character played byFrank Grillo. He sort of became the de facto franchise star, reprising his role in this year’sThe Purge: Election Yearwhich was—surprise—another big success.
However, while Paramount no doubt wants to continue on with the franchise, Grillo himself is less certain. Collider’s own Christina Radish recently spoke with the actor in anticipation of Season 3 of his DirecTV seriesKingdom, and the actor revealed that he’s a little ambivalent about returning forThe Purge 4:
“It is what it is, but it’s great. It’s fun. AfterAnarchy, Universal called me and said, ‘You’ve got a franchise. We’re gonna continue with this, if you wanna do this.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, this is great!’ And so, whenElection Yearwas even more successful, they were like, ‘Let’s keep doing this!’ I was like, ‘Maybe. I think I might be done, but you should keep doing it!’ But, I love it! [James]DeMonaco, who wrote and directed all of them, reminds me a lot of (Kingdomcreator/showrunner)Byron[Balasco], in the sense that he so understands the world he’s created that you just follow him. For an actor, that’s fun.”
So does that mean Grillo definitely doesn’t want to do anotherPurgemovie? In answering this query, the actor also let slip that he may or may not have turned down the opportunity to reprise hisCaptain America: The Winter SoldierandCivil Warrole of Crossbones in a future MCU movie:
“If DeMonaco was still involved and they came up with a great idea, then I think I would do [anotherPurgemovie]. Otherwise, I think I’m done. Same thing withCaptain America. There’s nowhere for it to go, unless you’re Captain America or Iron Man. They were talking about it, but I was like, ‘You know what? I’d just rather not do it.’ I’m so appreciative and grateful to have been a part of something that big. I’m appreciative ofThe Purge. It’s become a part of the lexicon and the zeitgeist knows what it is, so that’s been fun. But, it’s time to move on. Don’t stay at the party too long, or you get knocked through the ropes.”
While the Crossbones characterdidcome to full fruition inCaptain America: Civil War, he was basically just used in the opening prologue and then discarded via explosion. Grillo previously teased a future appearance by saying that we never actually saw Crossbones die, but it sounds like he decided he’d rather not return only for the character to once again be used in a couple of scenes that are tangential to the main plot.
Which, you know, is understandable, plusAvengers: Infinity Warand its sequelAvengers 4already have plenty of characters to handle. So for now at least, it sounds like we’ve seen the last of Crossbones.
Look for much more from our interview with Grillo on Collider soon.Kingdomreturns to the AT&T Audience Network on DirecTV on May 31st.
