Avengers 4

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Though practically nothing has been confirmed regarding the events in the upcoming ‘Avengers 4’, there have been some pretty persistent rumors, including that the film features time travel and that some long-deceased characters could potentially return or at least be seen in flashbacks.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson recently shot down any hope that his character, Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver might resurface.  But now, one ex-Marvel actor has revealed that he did indeed shoot scenes for the upcoming sequel, as well as the nature of that appearance and his potential future with the franchise.

While appearing on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, Frank Grillo admitted that his character, Brock Rumlow a.k.a. Crossbones makes an appearance:

“He [Crossbones] makes an appearance in the next Avengers movie. But it’s a flashback… Yeah and I’m allowed to say whatever I want because I’m never doing another Marvel movie… Because I’m 117 years old.”

On the one hand, it will be good to see Grillo back as Crossbones.  On the other, the reason it will be good to see him is that he was one of the most wasted characters in the movie series.  In the comics, Crossbones is a pretty major and persistent opponent for Captain America.  But after a teasing appearance in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, in which Grillo only appeared as Rumlow, he was killed off during the opening scene of ‘Captain America: Civil War’, after adopting the full-on identity of Crossbones.

Reportedly, the post-credits scene in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ hinted at the trajectory of ‘Avengers 4’.  Reportedly, the Avengers will use the Quantum Realm to travel back in time to prevent Thanos from obtaining all of the Infinity Stones, which he used to erase half the universe’s population.

While it’s a given that the characters that turned to ash at the end of ‘Infinity War’ will be restored, it’s more uncertain what may happen to characters that died before the finger snap.  Could any of them return?

We’ll find out when Joe and Anthony Russo’s ‘Avengers 4’ hits theaters on May 3, 2019.