An A-list actor has given James Gunn's DC reboot the cold shoulder, leading to one of the franchise's first departures of a lead superhero.
Since taking over as DC Studios co-CEO, Gunn has had a pretty solid track record of courting big-name talent. This will be put on full display later this year when Superman soars into theaters, debuting the filmmaker's DCU on the big screen with a stacked cast of some of Hollywood's best and brightest.
However (as is the case with much in Hollywood), nothing is set in stone, and changes are bound to happen. The DCU is just so early in its life that it has remained relatively unscathed from high-profile departures to this point.
DCU Loses Big-Name Superhero Actor
The DCU lost one of its first lead superhero actors, according to a new report from The Hollywood Reporter.
The outlet wrote that Daniel Craig departed from Luca Guadagnino's Sgt. Rock film, in which the former James Bond actor was set to play the titular superhero role.
This marks one of the few major departures from a DCU project to date, with the only major comparable being Josh Brolin turning down a role in DC Studios' upcoming Lanterns series before his part was ultimately given to Friday Night Lights actor Kyle Chandler.
Prior to this, Craig was set to join the likes of David Corenswet, John Cena, Milly Alcock, Aaron Pierre, Kyle Chandler, and (presumably) Viola Davis, as one of the faces of the DCU, appearing alongside these other names as one of James Gunn's reboot's lead superhero characters.
Guadagnino and Craig, who worked together on last year's romantic drama Queer, were first announced to reunite for the upcoming film back in November.
While Guadagnino is still attached to direct, it seems as though the Challengers filmmaker will have to go back to the drawing board when it comes to his lead star for the title.
Word is that Sgt. Rock is getting set to shoot sometime this summer in the UK, and the search to replace Craig has already begun (with The Bear star Jeremy Allen White being a name The Hollywood Reporter mentions in its reporting on the matter).
An Unfortunate Loss for James Gunn's DCU Foundation
While there had been instances of actors either being turned down or themselves saying no to roles in James Gunn's DC reboot, this Daniel Craig Sgt. Rock departure is a massive moment for the franchise, as it marks one of the first major stars to leave after already being announced as a titular character.
Yes, the DCU has not been around for very long at this point, with its first movie set to hit theaters this year, but it has had a pretty good track record so far of announcing stars and holding onto them during development.
Part of this likely has to do with the assumed mandate of efficiency Gunn has instated behind the scenes at DC Studios. He has made it clear that a movie or TV show will not go into production unless a script has been locked.
While that does not directly correlate to stars sticking around, it does show that Gunn means business and will not keep talent waiting in the wings for a potential project to get going (just look at how fast things are already moving on all nine reported movies on the DCU slate).
That is usually when these sorts of things tend to happen, as a big-name actor signs on for a project, only to depart years later after months and months of being dragged along.
However, with Sgt. Rock reportedly already moving quickly to film this year, this could have actually been the case of a project picking up speed too fast and clashing with something else on Daniel Craig's busy schedule.
Of course, those details remain purely speculation at this point, but if DC Studios is serious about getting this movie off the ground in the next few months, surely, fans are not far away from hearing about Craig's eventual replacement.
Sgt. Rock has no publicly listed release date.
