Colin Farrell Confirms His Role In DC’s Short-Lived Sgt. Rock
“It should be made. It’s really, really good.”
With the script for The Batman II finally complete, the stars of Matt Reeves’ long-awaited sequel are breaking their silence one by one. Colin Farrell — whose portrayal as the Penguin has kept Reeves’ Epic Crime Saga afloat in the years between The Batman and The Batman II — is the latest to shower praise on Reeves’ work. He recently appeared on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, where he expressed genuine excitement for the “dense,” “really, really intelligent” story.
“I really do think it’s a masterwork,” Farrell told Horowitz. “Kind of a contemporary genre masterwork. It’s so brilliant and Robert [Pattinson] has got such a lovely journey to go on and take the audience through.”
It’s nice to know that the wait for The Batman II has been worth it — but another DC film hasn’t been so lucky. There was a time when Farrell was also rumored to step into the mainline DC Universe, as the lead in one of the franchise’s most surprising projects, Sgt. Rock. The film was definitely a dark horse for the DCU: it wasn’t in James Gunn’s original plans for the saga, but it was being fast-tracked all the same. Arthouse director Luca Guadagnino was attached to direct, and the search for a lead brought names like Farrell’s and Daniel Craig’s into the mix.
Farrell hasn’t spoken about his potential involvement in Sgt. Rock until now. The actor revealed that he was actually attached to the project, and would have starred in it as well as Reeves’ The Batman II.
Farrell nearly pulled double duty in the DC multiverse, starring in both The Batman and Sgt. Rock.
“God, that was a fantastic script,” Farrell said of Sgt. Rock. “I wonder what’s happening with it. I was going to do it with Luca. We spoke a couple of times. Had some really nice chats. I have no idea where it is now.”
DC reportedly shelved Sgt. Rock due to scheduling conflicts. Guadagnino planned to shoot this summer, but with so many loose ends still in play (the cast, for one, wasn’t finalized), production wouldn’t have been able to meet the right weather conditions for its on-location schedule. There’s a chance that DC could revisit the project next year — but given that Farrell hasn’t received any updates, Sgt. Rock might really be missing in action for good.
“I know nothing about it, brother,” continued Farrell. “But it should be made. It’s really, really good. There’s some wonderful stuff in it.”
It’s still early days for the DCU, so Gunn and Guadagnino could revisit Sgt. Rock eventually. But it may not be the right time for the film. Farrell would have pulled double duty in two DC projects — and though his performance as the Penguin renders him almost unrecognizable, his involvement might have blurred the lines between the canon DCU and its Elseworlds projects. The franchise needs cohesion, not chaos, at this stage, but the door is still open for Sgt. Rock to squeeze through later on.
