Netflix is turning The Gray Man into a shared universe of films.

The streaming service announced that the Russo Brothers-directed action film starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans is serving as a platform for an expanded franchise. Netflix revealed that it's developing a sequel to The Gray Man, confirming that Gosling will reprise his role as superspy Court Gentry while the Russo Brothers will once again direct. Stephen McFeely, who co-write the action thriller, is penning the script.

Netflix also revealed that it's developing a spinoff of The Gray Man. While little is known about this project, the studio confirmed that Paul Wernick and Rhett Rheese will be writing the film which is expected to "explore a different element" of the universe. At the time of publication, the movie's logline is being kept under wraps.

"The audience reaction to The Gray Man has been nothing short of phenomenal," said Joe and Anthony Russo. "We are so appreciative of the enthusiasm that fans across the world have had for this film. With so many amazing characters in the movie, we had always intended for the Gray Man to be part of an expanded universe, and we are thrilled that Netflix is announcing a sequel with Ryan, as well as a second script that we’re excited to talk about soon."

The Gray Man follows Court Gentry (Gosling), the CIA's top asset, as he goes on the run after discovering secrets that his superiors would rather keep buried. The highly trained spy is pushed to his limits after his previous employee sends the world's most lethal assassins to hunt him down, including Lloyd Hansen (Evans), a sociopathic former-CIA agent.

The Gray Man proved to be a major success for Netflix, debuting as the number one film in 92 countries and earning positive reviews from audiences. Despite this, many critics found the Russo Brother's latest film to be wanting as many felt the action and writing were unsatisfying. CBR's Narayan Liu writes that while The Gray Man presents itself as an exciting superhero film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it "lacks the colorful characters that make all of that work for the MCU."

The Gray Man is now streaming on Netflix. Neither the sequel nor the spinoff has a release date.

The CIA orders a hit on The Gray Man’s Sierra Six with a bounty that’s too high for mercenaries to pass up. The Gray Man sees the CIA as somewhat of a villain, which begins when Sierra Six (Ryan Gosling) is given a drive containing dark secrets about CIA director Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page). Carmichael recruits “sociopathic” rogue mercenary Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) to arrange the hit on Six, which includes an international manhunt worth far more than the millions of dollars on the bounty.

Once the hit on Sierra Six, whose real name is Court Gentry, is ordered by the CIA, The Gray Man shows groups of mercenaries from around the world gearing up to capture the title character. The Russo brothers’ film reveals that Six is the last of the Sierra agents, a group of ruthless assassins whose prison sentences were commuted in exchange for lifelong commitments to the CIA. As one of the most skilled CIA mercenaries with a well-known resumé, the call to bring down Sierra Six offers a hefty bounty, but it’s unclear whether the reward would have ever actually been paid.

When Sierra Six is captured by Laszlo Sosa, a man he believed to be helping him get a new passport and flee the United States, The Gray Man character reveals exactly how much Lloyd Hansen is offering for his capture. Laszlo states that Six is worth “a five and seven zeros,” revealing that the original bounty for killing or bringing in Ryan Gosling’s character was $50,000,000. However, Lloyd eventually increases this bounty once The Gray Man’s Sierra Six continues to evade his capture, adding $10 million to the bounty for the first person to put a bullet in Ryan Gosling’s character. Before The Gray Man’s ending, Six’s bounty was worth $60,000,000 – a fitting price for his codename. Of course, money wasn’t the only incentive to bring down Six, as his bounty also offered the prestige of being the person to kill the CIA’s most accomplished nameless assassin.

Was Lloyd Ever Going To Pay The Bounty For Six?

Netflix's The Gray Man ending proved that none of the mercenaries, nor Lloyd Hansen himself, were a true match for Six, as the movie concluded with the character on the run with young Claire Fitzroy (Julia Butters). However, even when the drive was restored to the CIA’s hands or Six was briefly captured, Lloyd never paid out the bounty. When Laszlo asked for his money for capturing Six, Lloyd greeted him with three bullets in the chest. Similarly, when Lone Wolf brought back the drive, Lloyd told Suzanne to pay him, but then took back his word only moments later by saying “do not pay this a**hole.”

While Lloyd was able to break as many rules as he wanted with Denny Carmichael backing him, it seems there was absolutely no intention of paying whoever brought in Six. At the end of the day, Chris Evans' character Lloyd was apt to keep the glory of killing Six to himself. However, The Gray Man ended with Suzanne killing Lloyd and taking Six in herself, with the CIA locking him up only for the talented assassin to miraculously escape. If Netflix greenlights The Gray Man 2 as has been suggested, it’s possible Suzanne and Denny will put another hit on Six in the sequel, though Ana de Armas’ Agent Miranda is apt to help him from the inside.

The actor who plays young Sierra Six in The Gray Man’s flashbacks is already playing one of the most notable child roles on TV. Netflix’s The Gray Man is adapted from the 2009 book of the same name by Mark Greaney, following Sierra Six, a CIA mercenary who uncovers dark secrets about the agency while on a mission. Starring Ryan Gosling as Six, Ana de Armas as his CIA ally Agent Miranda, Regé-Jean Page as the antagonistic Denny Carmichael, and Chris Evans as the rogue mercenary Lloyd Hansen, The Gray Man continues Netflix’s trend of placing A-list stars in big-budget action thrillers.

As The Gray Man uncovers how Ryan Gosling's character became the ruthless agent Sierra Six, the Russo brothers’ movie cuts to his past with quick flashbacks. The Gray Man reveals that Sierra Six, whose real name is Courtland Gentry, was physically and emotionally abused by his father as a child, whose “unsound” methods of making him and his brother “macho” included drowning him in bathtubs and burning him with cigarettes. The flashbacks eventually uncover that young Six landed himself in prison at 15 years old when he shot and killed his father in order to stop him from murdering his brother.

While The Gray Man’s flashbacks only make up a small portion of Court Gentry’s depicted story, young Six is portrayed by a significant up-and-coming child actor. His face is largely hidden in the flashbacks, but it’s clear that The Gray Man’s young Six is played by Cameron Crovetti, who is best known for playing Ryan Butcher on Amazon Prime’s The Boys. As the son of the villainous superhero Homelander and Billy Butcher’s wife, Ryan plays an incredibly important role in The Boys, with Cameron Crovetti having to increasingly show his acting chops as his father influences his moral decay. The Gray Man’s Cameron Crovetti also starred in HBO’s Big Little Lies as Josh Wright alongside his twin brother, where his character was once again the son of a sociopathic father.

The Gray Man Proves How Incredible Ryan’s The Boys Season 4 Story Will Be

The biggest roles of 14-year-old Cameron Crovetti have seen him portray sons who must overcome the immorality of their fathers, with his portrayal of young Six being an apt precursor to his character Ryan’s arc in The Boys season 4. Crovetti’s young Six is trained by his father to lose any sense of morality as he preaches being physically strong with no sense of emotional attachment, which are the same lessons that Homelander tries to teach Ryan in The Boys. The sinister ending of The Boys season 3 sees Ryan smiling after Homelander is greeted by a cheering crowd when sadistically murdering a critic, suggesting his moral decay is already setting in.

Crovetti’s role in The Gray Man has already proven that he can portray a young teen being abused by his father, whose “methods” end up still turning him into a killing machine. Homelander’s way of raising Ryan will seemingly produce similar results, with Ryan also perhaps being the only way to truly kill Homelander. It’s hinted that Ryan could become evil in The Boys season 4, but the more likely scenario is that Homelander’s abuse will eventually turn his son against him, seeing a transition similar to Six in The Gray Man. Like Six’s skills with a gun and his fists making him useful for the corrupt CIA, Ryan’s superpowers make him a weapon for the government and Vaught, but this likely won’t become fully realized until he kills his father. Even if the stories end up diverging, Crovetti’s The Gray Man role perfectly sets up the core conflict that Ryan will face in The Boys season 4.

The Gray Man, available to stream on Netflix starting July 22, is the platform’s most expensive movie to date with a reported budget of $200 million. Unfortunately, all that money didn’t help to make the story a particularly compelling one as it also is a bit of a mess and not in a good way. While good action films often rely on a straightforward premise to put the focus on the spectacle, this is a film that gets caught up in itself in ways that are unnecessarily convoluted and shifts into being a slog. Despite spanning many continents and settings in fight after fight, it relies on a lot of tiresome plotting to get us there. By the time we arrive, much of the tension is gone and the fights play out without any greater investment.

It makes for an experience that is awash in so many spy clichés that it uses to try to instill some sort of thrill though only threatens to drown the entire story. However, seeing as there is the potential for more sequels to come on the horizon based on the film’s conclusion, the meandering story itself could end up becoming quite important. So, if you haven’t already picked up on this, this piece is going to go through all the details of the film’s conclusion up until the very last shot. If you haven’t seen it and don’t want to be spoiled, feel to bookmark this then come back later. If you’re reading this in the future when we get The Gray Man 2: Gray Harder, then this will fill you in on what happened that you will have likely already forgotten.

Based on the hit novel of the same name by Mark Greaney, the film follows two opposing spies. One is known only as Six (Ryan Gosling) and he has been what is known as a Sierra agent for the last 25 years. He joined under duress after being given time off from prison in exchange for him working for them. In an early action scene, we see that Six is meant to carry out a hit on a man doing some sort of information exchange. He is there with his partner Dani (Ana De Armas) who helps him when things go awry. After choosing to not take the initial shot he was commanded to, Six ends up taking his target down in the shadow of exploding fireworks. In his dying breath, the man he was sent to kill informs him that he was also a Sierra agent known as Four. He gives him information on a flashdrive that is hidden in a coin on his necklace and warns him about trusting the corrupt Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page). Dani then approaches to ask him what happened and he tells her the target was a member of Sierra, something she says was not information they were given. Six then departs, leaving Dani behind to clean up with the other agents while he tries to piece together what happened.

Six keeps all of this to himself when questioned by Carmichael, effectively going rogue. He then goes to an internet cafe of sorts where he discovers the drive contains information about illegal CIA dealings that Carmicheal has been carrying out. However, it is encrypted and something he can’t access. He sends the information to his retired mentor Donald Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) and goes on the run. He then sends it to Maurice Cahill (Alfre Woodard) who is similarly retired and dying of cancer. Six involving them both leads to the kidnapping of Fitzroy’s niece Claire (Julia Butters). We learn via flashback that Claire is one of the few people that Six considers family. We get introduced to the film’s antagonist Lloyd (Chris Evans), a mustached maniac known for his tendency for killing everyone in his path. Lloyd uses Claire as leverage to get Fitzroy to give Six up. While he is attacked on a plane, he manages to jump out as it crashes and wrestle a parachute away from a man who tried to kill him. He then gets trapped by a document forger he thought he could trust, gets in a fight with Lloyd, and is saved by Dani. He remains distrustful of her as he believes she may also be corrupt. She places him in the back of a car driving away to put as much distance between them and a now very pissed Lloyd who she shot with a tranquilizer gun. The duo then eventually tries to team up with Cahill, though are attacked again. In the chaos, Cahill sacrifices herself by blowing up her home to give them cover to escape once more.

Joe & Anthony Russo are NOT directing SECRET WARS. At least not yet. No announcement this week at Comic-Con. Sorry guys. But maybe one day!

Lots more from @Russo_Brothers coming soon on #TheGrayMan & more. pic.twitter.com/Px5RRX7zi7

— Josh Horowitz (@joshuahorowitz) July 18, 2022