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The Gray Man premiered worldwide on July 22, 2022, on Netflix. Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and co-written by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, and Joe Russo, the film is based on the novel of the same name by Mark Greaney.
The film was developed for nine years before Netflix, and the Russo brothers picked it up. With a staggering budget of $200 million, the production value of this film is just second to No Time To Die. It is the biggest action-thriller dropped on the streaming platform this year.
The Gray Man features an all-star cast led by Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, with the former becoming the face of a possible franchise. Other cast members include Ana de Armas, who was also seen in Daniel Craig's final James Bond installment earlier this year, Regé-Jean Page, Jessica Henwick, Billy Bob Thornton, Julia Butter, Dhanush and Alfre Woodard.
The Gray Man is an action-packed delight
The plot of The Gray Man followed Six, a highly covert agent whose identity had been erased and was subsequently trained to be a ghost. He was recruited to the top-secret CIA project in 2003 by Agent Fitzroy.
Cut to 2021, the CIA was under a new regime, and Fitzroy was forced into retirement. Six was sent on a mission to Bangkok, where he discovered the immoral actions of Denny Carmichael, the present group chief, who had ordered him to kill Four, another nameless agent like him.
Four presented Six with a medallion that held a thumb drive within it. What followed after that was a cat-and-mouse chase replete with an overload of action. Hot on Six's heels was Lloyd Hansen, a sociopathic mercenary hired by Carmichael to retrieve the incriminating thumb drive by any means necessary.
Six's mission was two-fold, to save his own life and that of his former boss Fitzroy's niece, Claire. The latter had developed an innocent, familial bond with the rogue agent. Globe-trotting with Six and evading barrages of men sent by Hansen to retrieve the asset was Dani, who rescued Six multiple times.
Catch the movie on Netflix to witness the generosity the Russo brothers have brought to your screens after their monumentally successful Avengers films.
Will there be a sequel to The Gray Man?
The Gray Man is a cinematic adaptation of Mark Greaney's novel of the same name. It is the first of a series of nine novels that Greaney went on to write after the success of his first book, with the latest one published in 2021. So there is enough source material for the creators should they choose to go for a sequel.
However, there has been no official announcement from Netflix or the Russo brothers regarding a second installment. In an interview with Screen Rant, Joe and Anthony Russo did reveal that they approached The Gray Man as a franchise. Anthony Russo went on to say:
"Most things we do here we think about as a narrative universe. Certainly, that’s how we approach The Gray Man. We have many iterations of this narrative in our minds and it can have a variety of expressions, either in films or series."
Joe Russo also added that if there is a second film, viewers will finally get to meet The Old Man. The film showed Denny Carmichael engaging in a series of unsanctioned and highly reckless actions to retrieve the incriminating thumb drive from Six.
Margaret Cahill mentioned in the film that this was way above his pay grade, and there had to be someone pulling his strings. The Old Man remained a mystery in the movie, as did a couple of other plotlines.
It remains to be seen if there will be a sequel to The Gray Man, but the Russo brothers have left loose ends indicating a possible second run.
