The Gray Man: Netflix Delays Production Start on Evans, Gosling Film as COVID-19 Cases Rise

Netflix is preparing to dump more money into the upcoming film The Gray Man than anything else they've produced, and with that in mind they've decided to delay the start in production. Deadline reports that sets are being built in Los Angeles for the new film from Avengers: Endgame director Joe and Anthony Russo with a start date originally set for January 18; however, due to the rising number of COVID-19 coronavirus cases in California, the film's production start has been pushed back two weeks. The film will star Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans but cast weren't expected to be on set until the new year, so the delay just means a longer wait for them.

Gosling stars in the film as a freelance assassin and former CIA operative, Court Gentry, who is hunted around the globe by former ally Lloyd Hansen (Evans). This week saw the cast for the film expand to include Evans' Knives Out co-star Ana de Armas. Based on the book by Mark Greaney of the same name, Joe Russo penned the script which got a polish from Avengers: Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. The current expectation is that Gosling will return for sequels after The Gray Man is released.

"The intention is for it to be competitive with any theatrical and the ability to do with with Gosling and Evans is a dream for us," Joe Russo previously said about the project. "The idea is to create a franchise and build out a whole universe, with Ryan at the center of it. 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. We have a great working relationship with Netflix, and we go back almost 20 years with Scott Stuber. We formed AGBO to be an agnostic storytelling company, where we figure out the best platform. We think Netflix is the perfect place for this film."

"Gray Man is a spy film. For fans of The Winter Soldier, The Gray Man is similar in a sense that we're trying to embed it in a very modern, current environment that we're facing on a global level in terms of spy networks and [the] CIA," Anthony Russo said during a CCXP panel (via Collider). "It'll be fun to see Chris in the opposite role of Captain America."

Check back here for more news on The Gray Man as we learn it.