Netflix’s summer action movie The Gray Man pits Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans against each other in a spectacular chase across the globe. Knowing that the feature film is adapted from a literary series, is a sequel planned?
Warning, spoilers. It is advisable to have seen the film The Gray Man before continuing to read the article.
Available since July 22 on Netflix, The Gray Man is the new film from the Russo Brothers, to whom we owe two Captain America films and two Avengers films in the Marvel universe. This action movie follows the journey of CIA agent Court Gentry, aka Sierra Six (Ryan Gosling), who was recruited to become a hitman.
His discretion and exceptional skills make him one of the best agents whose code name is “Gray Man”. But the situation changes when he comes across compromising information for the American intelligence services. He is then hunted down by the CIA and by Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans), a former CIA sidekick, totally determined to track him down around the world to eliminate him.
In addition to being hunted around the world, Sierra Six will have to do everything possible to save and protect its recruiter Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) and his niece Claire (Julia Butters). Despite a few disappointments, Sierra Six comes out of it thanks to a deal with the CIA, which makes it take the blame for the death of Lloyd Hansen.
Imprisoned, Sierra Six manages to break free and free Claire, who was being held hostage, and the pair fly off to other lands for a future yet unknown. Unless Netflix offers a sequel to The Gray Man. Which could be entirely possible.
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The Gray Man, a franchise?
You should already know that The Gray Man is adapted from the novel of the same name by Mark Greaney, an action specialist who made a name for himself with this book that later became a successful literary series. The author has written eleven novels in the series since 2009 – and the twelfth will be released in 2023 – so there is plenty to continue the cinematic adventure.
And it would seem that this is the will of Netflix and the directors Anthony and Joe Russo. The duo has indeed entrusted to Empire that he was already considering making a sequel to the film and expanding the universe of The Gray Man:
“We never want to jinx each other, but we’re already thinking about what might happen next. We like to build worlds, and we prefer to put the odds on our side and put our energy and time a universe before its release.This allows for more relevant and organic ideas. This is how you build a more complex mosaic narrative. We are intimately involved in all of this.
For Joe Russo, “the goal is to make The Gray Man 2” : “We have a hell of an appetite and the intention is always to do more than we can.”
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The duo also reaffirmed this intention during the world press conference of The Gray Man, which AlloCiné was able to attend. Joe Russo has indicated that they want to create more adventures in The Gray Man universe:
“Part of our motivation to bring together a cast like this, an incredible cast like this that can portray so many interesting characters, was the hope of creating a kind of universe that you all wanted to follow, in the future. or in the past, from the timeline that we chose in that first movie. So yeah, hopefully there will be more stories to tell in the world of The Gray Man.”
The Russo brothers are therefore ambitious, but this is a challenge they are capable of meeting. They made Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which is one of the biggest box office hits of all time. With Netflix, they boxed the most expensive film in the history of the platform with a budget of 200 million dollars.
It remains to be seen whether The Gray Man will be successful on Netflix and whether the success will be significant enough for the American giant to give the Russo brothers the green light for a possible sequel. But with such a budget, it seems that the platform is betting big on The Gray Man, which could be a big franchise for it and its millions of subscribers.
Netflix has also planned a large-scale marketing campaign for the film, as for any major blockbuster that would be released in cinemas, such as a Marvel. This was suggested by Joe Russo at the New York Times : “It’s a very large-scale promo. We’re going on a world tour to promote the movie. The actors come with us. It’s very much like the work we’ve done promoting Marvel movies.”
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Faced with heavy competition and a significant loss of subscribers, Netflix is looking for its successful franchise. This is what Matthew Thunell, one of the leaders of the platform, explained in an interview for Reuters :
“We want our own Star Wars or Harry Potter, and we work very hard for it. But it doesn’t happen overnight. […] And that must start from the story itself. Is it strong enough to be extended? […]
There are shows like Stranger Things that are very popular and contain enough mythology and subplots to allow us to move the show into anime, live-action or animated movies.”
If Netflix has its great successes in series, such as Stranger Things, La Chronique des Bridgerton, La Casa de Papel, Squid Game, and in films, such as Tyler Rake, Red Notice, Enola Holmes, the platform does not yet have a major franchise. on the same level as its competitors cited as Star Wars or Harry Potter. Perhaps The Gray Man could be that first franchise for Netflix?