This past weekend, the Russo brothers announced that their latest film, The Gray Man, has officially wrapped production. Their Instagram post featured a snarling Joe Russo giving us his best Gollum with the tagline: “When they tell you to leave set because #TheGrayMan is wrapped…” The Gray Man reunites the Russos with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who wrote the Russo MCU entries including Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain America: Civil War and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Filming just began earlier this spring, so hopefully a short production window means we don’t have to wait long for the film to premiere.
The Gray Man is based on Mark Greaney‘s 2009 novel of the same name, which follows Court Gentry, a veteran CIA operative who is forced to become a fugitive after being betrayed by someone on the inside. A former colleague of his, Lloyd Hansen, is sent to track him down. Ryan Gosling has been cast as Gentry, with Chris Evans back on board with the Russos to play Hansen. Rounding out the rest of the cast is Ana de Armas, Michael Gandolfini, Jessica Henwick, Wagner Moura, Regé-Jean Page, Billy Bob Thornton and Alfre Woodard.
The Gray Man is the first in the Court Gentry series, which boasts 10 installments, indicating that this could be the start of a new franchise for the Russo brothers. The filmmaking team actually confirmed that it’s a franchise in the making in December of last year, and that it might live on past their support. Joe Russo said, “It could be other filmmakers…but we’d love to tell multiple stories and schedule-dependent, we might not be able to handle everything. So we love to bring new voices in and we also get excited about that.”
With a dynamic creative and cast behind the film, it’s sure to be another great entry into the action-spy series. A government agent forced to go on the run after a betrayal easily brings to mind Mission: Impossible, numerous James Bond films, The Bourne Identity and basically every spy movie ever. However, this film seems to tease a relationship between Gosling‘s Gentry and Evans‘ Hansen as something reminiscent of The Fugitive, so truly no complaints here.
Additionally, it’s always entertaining to see Evans branch out from his good guy-Captain America persona, so I’m certainly hoping that he channels his best Tommy Lee Jones. In a recent Instagram post, Evans showcases his nasty bruises from production, proving that The Gray Man will still be just as action heavy as the Russo Brothers’ other films.
Netflix has not yet released a premiere date for The Gray Man, but hopefully we’ll hear more soon. Check out the Russo brothers’ Instagram post below.
via Collider