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The Gray Man is a thrilling new film available to stream on Netflix. The action-thriller is based on the 2009 Mark Greaney novel of the same name, which has expanded into a bestselling book series. The movie centers around The Gray Man, a former CIA operative and a freelance assassin whose real name is Court Gentry.
The film is epic in scale with a reported budget of a whopping $200 million. The Gray Man has been a long-gestating project in Hollywood. The film was in the works with Brad Pitt set to star in 2015, but the project never came to be. The Gray Man went into development in 2020 and was released on Netflix on July 22, 2022. Here’s everything you need to know about the film and the plans for a sequel.
‘The Gray Man’ Sequel
A sequel to The Gray Man was officially announced by Netflix on July 26. Ryan Gosling will return for the spinoff, which is now in development with Joe and Anthony Russo returning as directors. A spinoff to the main franchise is also in the works, Netflix said, though no actors/characters have been announced.
“The sequel will be inspired by the Mark Greaney novel,” Joe told Deadline after the sequel was announced. “Translating from one medium to another often requires interpretation, but we have an incredible amount of source material from an amazing offer. We’ll draw on that for the sequel.” As for the spinoff, Joe revealed that it will be “a little more edgy and experimental.”
‘The Gray Man’ Cast: New & Familiar Faces
Ryan Gosling stars as Court Gentry, with Chris Evans starring as Lloyd Hansen. Gosling versus Evans? Yes, please! Their casting was announced in July 2020. Over the latter months of 2020 and into 2021, more incredible stars were added to the cast. Ana de Armas, Jessica Henwick, Wagner Moura, Dhanush, and Julia Butters joined the cast in December 2020. The Gray Man is a reunion for Chris and Ana, who both starred in the hit 2019 film Knives Out. The Gray Man is the latest high-profile project for Julia, the breakout star of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Coming off his star-making turn in Netflix’s Bridgerton as the Duke of Hastings, Regé-Jean Page joined the cast in March 2021. Billy Bob Thornton and Alfre Woodard are are also in The Gray Man.
‘The Gray Man’ Behind-The-Scenes
The Gray Man is directed by ultimate power duo Joe and Anthony Russo. The brothers notably directed a slew of Marvel movies, including the 2019 epic Avengers: Endgame. The film is produced by the Russo brothers’ company, AGBO. Joe wrote the screenplay, along with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Christopher and Stephen previously worked with the Russos on Captain America and Avengers films. They are also Co-Presidents of Story at AGBO.
The Gray Man is the fifth collaboration between the Russo brothers and Chris Evans. Joe and Anthony Russo previously directed Chris in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.
Back in December 2020, The Gray Man’s production start was delayed due to the rising COVID-19 cases in California, Deadline reported. The movie was originally slated to start shooting in mid-January 2021, but it was delayed at least two weeks. At the beginning of March 2021, it was revealed that filming was set to start in two weeks.
The Big Netflix Deal
With a budget of $200 million, The Gray Man is the most expensive Netflix film yet. That’s a big undertaking, but Joe and Anthony Russo have proven they’re more than capable of creating a blockbuster film. Avengers: Endgame remains the highest-grossing movie of all-time with box office earnings at over $2.7 billion. The Netflix film Extraction, which starred Chris Hemsworth and was produced by AGBO, became the most-watched Netflix original movie when Netflix announced its top 10 original movie list in 2020. When it comes to blockbusters, the Russo brothers know what they’re doing.
Joe explained in a July 2020 interview with Deadline that the hope is that The Gray Man becomes a successful Netflix franchise, There are currently 10 books in The Gray Man franchise, with Relentless having been released in February 2021.
“The intention is for it to be competitive with any theatrical, and the ability to do with Gosling and Evans is a dream for us,” Joe said. “The idea is to create a franchise and build out a whole universe, with Ryan at the center of it. We have all committed to the first movie, and that’s got to be great to get us to the second movie. These are master assassins, and Gosling’s characters gets burned by the CIA and Evans’ character has to hunt him down. We have a great working relationship with Netflix, and we go back almost 20 years with Scott Stuber. We formed AGBO to be an agnostic storytelling company, where we figure out the best platform. We think Netflix is the perfect place for this film.”
