Fans are excited for Colin Farrell to join the DCU, but some are a little conflicted about The Penguin star’s new role

Now that Colin Farrell is in talks to star in Luca Guadgnino’s Sgt. Rock movie for DC Studios, fans are conflicted on how they feel about The Penguin star taking on another role for DC.

Daniel Craig was originally in talks to play the World War 2 soldier, who leads the Easy Company infantry unit and first appeared in DC Comics back in 1959, with Jeremy Allen White rumored to be stepping in after Craig dropped out. Justin Kuritzkes, who worked with Guadagnino on Challengers and Queer, is penning the script, and the movie is reportedly set to start filming in the UK this summer.

While some fans are excited about Farrell’s casting, others are concerned that “new blood” needs to be brought into the DCU. Farrell first played mobster Oz Cobb in 2022’s The Batman, before leading the HBO series The Penguin last year. Matt Reeves’ movies (and any associated spin-offs) are not part of the DCU and come under the Elseworlds umbrella instead, but some viewers think it’s still an odd casting choice from DC Studios.

“Having like one actor play all these characters is kind of weird tbh. Let’s get new blood,” wrote one Reddit user.

“I still don’t understand the push for this deep cut character movie when our core characters aren’t even established yet,” someone else pointed out, while another fan agreed, “To the best of my knowledge, Sgt Rock is pretty much just a WWII soldier with no special powers. Why is DC pushing so hard for this movie? Not trying to bash, I’m genuinely curious on why people are fans of the character and what about him appeals to people.”

However, another user argued that Guadagnino is the appeal here, rather than the character. “I think its more so that this is the project that Luca Guadagnino is interested in and he’s a director who a lot of talented actors want to work with,” they wrote. “I imagine the movie will be promoted mostly based on the director and lead rather than the actual Sgt Rock character.”

“Better than Jeremy Allen White,” someone else commented. “White is a good actor but not a big name at all, and a project like this needs some degree of star power to give it a chance at the box office,” someone else replied. “Farrell is a great choice for that.”

“I personally think it’s very exciting if Farrell joins the DCU in addition to being in the Reeves-verse,” wrote another user.

“It’s incredibly dumb that people think he can’t play Sgt. Rock when he’s Oz. Not only are they different universes but the characters look nothing alike,” agreed someone else.

Sgt. Rock doesn’t have a release date yet. While we wait for more updates, check out our guide to the other upcoming DC movies and shows on the way in 2025 and beyond.