Exciting recent reports suggest that DC movie, after years of fan castings, and a couple of persistent rumors that ultimately led to nothing. Those reports may come as a shock, given Craig's infamous unhappiness with the big franchise system during his 20-year stint as James Bond, but we shouldn't be cynical about such an exciting prospect.
Craig actually does have a track record in comic book movies, having played psychopathic mobster Connor Rooney in Sam Mendes' excellent Road To Perdition back in 2002. Somehow, in the 22 years since, he's played neither a Balder The Brave in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He rebuked both rumors with apparent amusement.
Craig spoke recently to the New Yorker to talk about the freedom he has to choose roles now that he's not playing Bond, as well as revealing his fascination with the "vulnerability of human beings", which perhaps explains why we've never seen him in a cape. But if he's set to trade his Walther PPK as 007 for a submachine gun in the DCU, there are some huge positives to take from it. Not least, the opportunity to see a realization of the lost MCU movie I've wanted for over a decade.
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Daniel Craig Could Play Sgt Rock In The DCU
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Who Is Sgt. Rock? Daniel Craig's DC Superhero's Comics History & Powers Explained
Daniel Craig is in talks to play Sgt. Rock, so here's everything you need to know about the legendary WWII hero and how he might connect to the DCU.
For me, the only real concern with a Sgt. Rock movie is the strange fit with the DCU's Chapter One: Gods & Monsters umbrella. It's an uneasy jigsaw piece to place, unless the monsters in question are Nazis rather than supernatural foes, of course. And really, the idea of a homogeneous roster of releases that looks to ape the MCU too much would be too one-dimensional. Projects like a World War II epic under an Oscar-worthy director famed for his focus on deep human storylines should be welcomed.
Let's instead put the cynicism aside and take Craig's own comments on his interest in playing vulnerable characters as a further reason to be excited about this project. Chris Evans' Captain America performance was about the strength of Cap's character and his human vulnerabilities as much as his superhuman exploits. And since Sgt. Rock is as close to a Captain America project DC is going to get, we really ought to be paying attention. Particularly because it could give us a look at the comic book era the MCU skipped after Captain America: The First Avenger.
The MCU Moved On From Captain America's World War II Era Too Quickly
Chris Evans' Man Out Of Time Skipped Too Much Of The Good Stuff
There are very few things wrong with Chris Evans' Captain America movies. Both sequels were improvements on the original, and both rank in the very top tier of the MCU's best movies, earning the Russo Brothers the keys to the Avengers cruise ship. But one thing that has never sat comfortably with me was the somewhat necessary evil of skipping over all of Cap's World War II exploits in The First Avenger and bringing him too quickly to the future.
There's a pure entertainment factor to seeing Cap defeat Nazis that the MCU simply hasn't delivered enough of
In his original appearance, Cap brought together the Howling Commandos, including Bucky Barnes, after liberating them from Hydra custody, and led them on multiple missions against Red Skull's men. Unfortunately, the decision was made to speed through those missions and bring them together as a sort of glorified action montage. When Cap went into the ice and woke up in the modern world, besides Bucky, he left the Howling Commandos and his primary mission back in the past, and Marvel missed a huge opportunity to mine more from a rich period of his comics history.
There are numerous stand-out story arcs starring Steve Rogers in World War II, and as much as his "man out of time" hook is an intriguing one, there's a pure entertainment factor to seeing Cap defeat Nazis that the MCU simply hasn't delivered enough of. The Howling Commandos also have great comics to their name (even if some of them are with Nick Fury) and honestly, offer me more Dum Dum Dugan in any way, and I'd snap your hand off.
... And Sgt Rock Can Scratch That Comic Book War Movie Itch Perfectly
While the MCU left the glorious promise of a World War II movie or series focused on Cap and the Howling Commandos taking out Nazis and Hydra agents on the table, the DCU's Sgt. Rock movie could step in perfectly. Imagine how great Daniel Craig would be as the stoical Easy Company battlefield leader, fearless even without superpowers, but prodigiously gifted in combat, growling his way through missions in .
If wanting to see the DCU release a war movie starring Daniel Craig as DC's answer to Captain America, fighting real monsters and impossible odds is wrong, I'm not sure I want to be right
A modern Sgt. Rock movie, set in during the 1940s - because the character's identity was always tied inherently to the theater of war - could be remarkable. After James Bond, Craig's sensibilities as an actor would guarantee depth to the character, and Luca Guadagnino would hardly make a hollow capes and masks spectacle that didn't cater to the actor's desire for substance. Really, the DCU banner should be considered a distraction: because released by any other studio, such a prospect would be solid gold.
The MCU made some genius moves in exploring how humanity counterbalances superheroism in some of its most compelling releases, when you think about it. There's an obsession with the idea of vulnerable characters standing up to impossible odds, and World War II was as close to a real-world equivalent as anyone lived through. In other words, none of this Sgt. Rock project is a betrayal of superhero movie fans, or a compromise on what we all love: it's just another way to tell a very similar story.
And if wanting to see the DCU release a war movie starring Daniel Craig as DC's answer to Captain America, fighting real monsters and impossible odds is wrong, I'm not sure I want to be right. Sgt. Rock is too good an opportunity to give fans who miss the Howling Commandos era exactly what we want.
