After Joe and Anthony Russo wrote film history with ‘Avengers: Endgame’, the two directors and brothers wanted to transfer this success to the streaming landscape. So they started with the action hit “The Gray Man‘ presented a $200 million blockbuster on Netflix last year, which quickly rose to No. 5 among the streaming service’s most successful films.
Although the action hit only received a solid three stars in our FILMSTARTS review, we weren’t particularly surprised that shortly after the film’s release starring Ryan Gosling a whole ‘The Gray Man’ universe announced was – with a sequel and a spin-off. However, Scott Stuber, head of film at Netflix, has now revealed that further ‘The Gray Man’ films are not particularly high on the priority list at the moment.
Too much action and not enough depth – “The Gray Man 2” must do justice to Ryan Gosling
This is what the Netflix executive explained in an interview with instead, that the Russo brothers packed a little too much action and a little too little character development into “The Gray Man”: “I believe the answer to that [ob das ‚The Gray Man‘-Franchise weitergeht]is more of a maybe. We have to get this right. [Joe und Anthony Russo] had the biggest box office hit of all time and so they also had the claim in the streaming field: ‘How do we make the biggest movie of all time?’ And that’s why we put too much action in the film and we should have slowed down with the character development.”
There would also be more “The Gray Man” films about it Ryan Gosling to do justice as a protagonist: “Joe and Anthony [Russo] also talked about, ‘How can we continue to work with Ryan Gosling when we come back?’ What he is currently doing is really great. I don’t know if there’s a better actor out there right now, considering his versatility and performance. It would be incredible to have him in a franchise, but before that we really have to ask ourselves: “What defines this character and how can we really expand this story in a meaningful way?””
In fact, it remains to be seen whether Ryan Gosling would still be interested in a sequel to The Gray Man, as the actor experienced a turning point in his career this year with the massive success of Barbie. Next up, we’ll see Ryan Gosling in David Leitch’s “The Fall Guy,” which will hit theaters here on February 29, 2024.