Based on nothing but the two names confirmed for the project up until now, Netflix action movie Havoc was already sitting comfortably at the top of many people’s most-anticipated lists, and with good reason.
After coming close to helming Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke for Warner Bros. and DC Films, The Raid‘s action maestro Gareth Evans is finally set to tackle his first Stateside production. The filmmaker signed an exclusive development deal with Netflix last year, and for his first project he’s teaming up with Tom Hardy for a high concept thriller that looks to bring out the best in both.
Hardy will also co-produce Havoc, which opens with a drug deal gone wrong and forces the actor’s detective to go on a one-man rampage fighting his way through a web of criminal corruption to rescue the son of a notable politician, while staving off enemies from all sides as he seeks to uncover a wide-ranging conspiracy.
Havoc has finally announced some new additions to the cast, with Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker and Timothy Olyphant having boarded the ensemble. There’s no word on who they could be playing, but Whitaker is no stranger to playing grizzled veteran cops in the genre, and Olyphant’s stints on Justified and The Mandalorian highlighted his easygoing charm and rugged charisma so he could be operating on either side of the law.
Having burst onto the scene with The Raid and its sequel, Evans has hardly been prolific in the years since his second Indonesian martial arts actioner arrived in 2014, although he did deliver Netflix psychological period piece Apostle back in 2018, and also co-created acclaimed crime series Gangs of London, directing the majority of the action sequences himself. There’s no word on when Havoc stars shooting, but sooner rather than later would be ideal.