‘The Gray Man 2’ Is Coming To Netflix, As Was The Original Plan

Update: And of course, a few hours after I publish this, Netflix has confirmed that a Gray Man sequel and a spin-off project are both coming after the film is a “fan favorite,” citing its high audience scores:

Following the immensely successful release of The Gray Man this weekend, where it debuted as the #1 movie in 92 countries, Netflix is cementing plans for the IP to become a major spy franchise. A sequel to The Gray Man, which is already a fan favorite with a 91% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, is now in development with star Ryan Gosling and directors Joe and Anthony Russo set to return.

A spin-off film, written by acclaimed screenwriters Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (Deadpool, Zombieland) is set to explore a different element of The Gray Man universe. The logline is being kept under wraps.

Again, this was no surprise, given both how the film was performing, and the idea that Netflix seems to have designed this project from the start to try and be its own Fast and Furious, Mission Impossible or John Wick type franchise.

Original article follows:

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A curious bit of news came out of SDCC this weekend, where Joe and Anthony Russo were confirmed by Kevin Feige not to be directing the two upcoming Avengers movies, even though the Russos have previously commented how much they love Secret Wars as a storyline.

The reason for that? I doubt it’s Disney rejecting them, and it may be because the Russos are now busy attempting to build a blockbuster empire for Netflix instead. Their new film, The Gray Man, is putting up big viewership numbers and high audience scores (albeit low critic scores) and that leads to an obvious question. Is The Gray Man 2 coming?

Almost certainly yes, as that was definitely supposed to be the initial plan. This was from the CCXP event back before the movie even came out:

“This is being conceived as a series of films, and again, potentially branching out, we could follow other characters,” Joe Russo said. “So you’re gonna finish the movie, [and] have a complete story, but you’re still gonna have questions about the wider universe. And I think that’s one way to break the model a little bit, is to not give the audience everything in one film.”

More recently, speaking to Empire, Joe Russo continued to talk about a sequel/franchise:

“We never want to jinx it,” said Joe Russo. “But we’re already thinking through where it goes from here. We like to build out worlds, and we would rather gamble on the upside and put the energy and time in to build out that universe prior to the release, so that the ideas are more germane and organic. That’s how you build out a more complex mosaic narrative…We’re intimately involved in all of it. The focus is to make ‘Gray Man 2’. Our appetite is voracious and the intention is always to do more than we can.”

The Gray Man ended (spoilers) with the somewhat standard finale of the hero surviving and the villain dying, and I do wonder how good a sequel will be without Chris Evans, given that he was easily the highlight character of the first film. There are certainly more threads to be pulled, as the storyline suggests a larger conspiracy behind the Gray Man program, but it also didn’t end on any ultra-wild cliffhangers either. Some other interview suggest the movie could even spawn spin-offs, not just sequels, and it’s easily to imagine say, Ana de Armas branching out for her own spy thriller, after the events of this movie.

Again, The Gray Man is another case of Netflix sinking a ton of money and star power into something critics don’t like, but audiences are eating up. The Gray Man seems to be following the trajectory of Red Notice, which ended up being Netflix’s most-viewed film, and is getting a sequel, despite critics rejecting it. I do wonder just how well The Gray Man has to perform to be given not just a sequel, but one with a matching or higher budget than the first movie. I also wonder what it would take to convince Netflix and the Russos to go full John Wick and make it rated R this time, but that seems unlikely.

I would expect The Gray Man 2 to be confirmed shortly here, though I’ll admit I do sort of wish the Russos were making Secret Wars instead.

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