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The Penguin season 2 looks even more unlikely as Colin Farrell joins talks to be Luca Guadagnino's Sgt. Rock
To be fair, strapping on a helmet sure seems easier than a three-hour session in a make-up chair
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The good news? Colin Farrell may very well be joining James Gunn & Peter Safran's DCU. The bad news? It's definitely going to take longer for a Penguin season 2... if one happens at all. The story comes from The Hollywood Reporter, who explained on March 17 that Farrell was in talks for the role of Sgt. Rock, the titular role in Luca Guadagnino's WWII flick based on classic DC war comics such as Our Army at War.
Regular Popverse readers will recall our article on the Sgt. Rock role, which in years past was going to go to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Decades later, Gunn & Safran's DC Studios greenlit a film focused on the character, with The Challengers director Guadagnino and Knives Out lead Daniel Craig considering the titular role. Craig departed the film in February of this year (via THR again), and fans could feel the brakes being tapped on the movie's progression. But while Farrell's potential involvement is step in the right direction for the gritty, tension-inducing DCU project, it could mean the end of his gritty, tension-inducing DCU adjacent project.
Popverse has reported on Farrell's reluctance to return to his Golden Globe-winning role of Oz Cobb in the past, citing the actor's comments on the layers of prosthetics it took to bring his character to life. "When I finished [filming]," the Banshees of Inisherin star said, "I was like, ‘I never want to put that f—ing suit and that f—ing head on again.'" Presumably, the role of Sgt. Frank Rock would not require the same kind of heavy make-up (the first look we got at the character from Creature Commandos looked like a normal guy to me), and so if the choice is between two roles that both pay DC money, we'd wager that he'd pick the one that doesn't require three hours in a make-up chair.
(Speaking of appearances, we should note that the picture above is not Colin Farrell as Sgt. Rock, but from the WWII film Hart's War. In case you were confused.)
Let's make one thing very clear, though: we're not insiders at all. Farrell has yet to even officially accept the role of Sgt. Rock, so our speculation about him choosing a prosthetics-free DC role over a prosthetics-heavy one is just that. It is entirely possible, of course, that the famously versatile actor could accept both roles or, unfortunately, say no to continuing with either of them.
It must be said, though, if he wants to play a comic book character that's somewhere in the middle of the two, he could always take another run at Bullseye. That would probably involve fighting Wilson Bethel over it, though.
Sgt. Rock is rumored to be released October of 2026.
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