Avengers: Endgame director Joe Russo has teased the action thriller pedigree of his upcoming Netflix outing, The Gray Man, comparing the project to one of the most well-regarded examples of the franchise, Michael Mann’s Heat. The Gray Man will see two of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, go head-to-head, with Russo reminded of the match-up of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino way back in the 1995 heist flick.

“It’s fantastic, it’s electric. It’s also been a long time since we’ve seen a movie like this. We have two big movie stars going against each other to the tradition of like De Niro and Pacino in Heat. This is an intense action film. Very, very entertaining performances from both actors, and they’re absolutely pitted against each other in the movie. And it’s a deliciously sociopathic turn for Chris Evans as the villain. He does [make a good sociopath], it’s quite entertaining. So I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

Heat is considered to be one of the most critically-acclaimed examples of the genre of all time, so the comparison between it and The Gray Man should not be taken lightly. Directed by Michael Mann, Heat finds Al Pacino as Lieutenant Hanna, a self-destructively determined detective, and Robert De Niro as expert thief Neil McCauley, with the two men slowly driven towards each other in an acting, action masterclass. Speaking with Variety, Joe Russo is clearly confident in what he and his brother Anthony have produced for the streaming giant.

The Gray Man meanwhile is based on the 2009 debut novel by Mark Greaney and comes from a screenplay the Russo Brothers have co-written alongside Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The Gray Man follows a former CIA operative turned freelance assassin named Court Gentry, also known as the titular Gray Man. Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling will star as Gentry, who is being hunted by his former CIA cohort Lloyd Hansen, played by Captain America himself, Chris Evans. There is no doubt that Gosling and Evans are two of the most talented actors working right now, and the prospect of their journey in The Gray Man being akin to that of De Niro and Pacino in Heat is a hugely exciting one.

Starring alongside the A-list one-two punch of Gosling and Evans, The Gray Man has amassed a stellar supporting cast including Knives Out star Ana de Armas, Bridgerton's Regé-Jean Page, Luke Cage star Alfre Woodard, Iron Fist's Jessica Henwick, and Academy Award winner Billy Bob Thornton.

Following several delays, The Gray Man finally wrapped filming back in August. Not only are the Russo’s so confident in the movie that they are happy to compare it to a cinematic classic such as Heat, they have also previously teased sequels and spinoffs. “The idea is to create a franchise and build out a whole universe, with Ryan at the center of it,” Joe Russo said. “We have all committed to the first movie and that's got to be great to get us to the second movie. These are master assassins and Gosling's characters gets burned by the CIA and Evans' character has to hunt him down."

The Gray Man has not yet been given a release date, though it is expected to hit screens sometime in 2022. The movie is set to be distributed by Netflix, and, with a production budget of $200 million, currently stands at one of the streaming platform's most expensive projects.