Sierra Six (played by Ryan Gosling) will soon be back in yet another global mission as the streaming giant Netflix has greenlit an entire franchise based on the record-breaking success of The Gray Man. The film — one of the most expensive Netflix original movies ever made — debuted at number one in 93 countries within the first week of its streaming release, ultimately clocking in a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 91%.
Helmed by Joe and Anthony Russo, the directors of the second-highest-grossing film globally with their superhero ensemble film Avengers: Endgame, The Gray Man traces the spy, thriller, and action narrative, quite analogous to James Bond, by putting Captain America actor Chris Evans (playing Lloyd Hansen) in the antagonist's skin. It follows Sierra Six, a top CIA undercover agent, and Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) getting chased by another sadistic spy contractor, Hansen, who will go to any lengths to retrieve a drive harboring dirty secrets of the CIA.
Stephen McFeeley and Christopher Marcus (the writers of several MCU films, including Avengers: Endgame and Captain America: Civil War) penned the script, which was predominantly based on Mark Greaney’s best-selling novel of the same name. Greaney readers will know that Six belongs to a spy-versus-spy universe that is quite vast, and the streaming platform, too, has much skin in the game, naturally ensuring The Gray Man’s tales will not perish anytime soon.
Even the Russo brothers, before The Gray Man hit the screens, cleared the air about their plans for the franchise beyond the first iteration. In an interview with Empire, director Joe Russo remarked, “We never want to jinx it. But we are 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.” It is evident that the directors will not stop anytime soon until they have exhaustively explored the world of the formidable spy. Here’s what is in store for The Gray Man franchise.
The Gray Man Sequel
Mark Greaney’s literary universe for Sierra Six consists so far of eleven novels, with the twelfth installment hitting bookstores in 2023. The second entry from the novel series On Target puts the spy in yet another pickle as opposed to his previous missions, and, naturally, this one will be more daunting than ever. An old comrade who is a Russian arms dealer — Sidorenko, presumed dead by everyone — resurfaces, forcefully assigning a near-impossible mission to Six. However, the CIA has other plans for the Russian: they expect the Gray Man to turn him over.
It might appear that, after a quick read of On Target, fans of Sierra Six have decoded the plot. Of course, the catch is: the Russo brothers believe that novels and film are two different media and need not necessarily overlap their storytelling when translated to another. And that was exactly the case with The Gray Man. Therefore, the plotline of the coming sequel is quite likely to pivot from the novels while still borrowing its elements from them. Other details about the entry are scant at the moment, but it is officially confirmed that McFeeley will continue penning the scripts.
The Gray Man Spin-Off
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The sequels are not the end of the world of Sierra Six. In another development, steering The Gray Man franchise toward an expanded universe, Netflix confirmed a spin-off movie that will serve as a prequel as well. Similarly to the sequel, the nitty-gritty of this project is under the wraps, and still at a nascent stage. It is only known so far that Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese (writers of Deadpool) will pen the scripts while the plotline will explore Hansen's backstory. What's more, the Russos, in an interview with Deadline, shared that the spin-off will be more on an edgier and experimental spectrum than the first film. That is all that has been currently spilled so far about the future of The Gray Man franchise, but surely, with a sequel and a spin-off planned, there will be more to see in this world.