Exclusive: Henry Cavill Starring In The Last Gunslinger, Director And Details Revealed
Henry Cavill will star in an Apple TV+ titled The Last Gunslinger, directed by Dexter Fletcher.
Henry Cavill will star in a new Western film titled The Last Gunslinger for Apple TV+, adding yet another movie genre to his collection. According to our trusted and proven sources, the former Superman actor will be teaming up with Ghosted director Dexter Fletcher for the new film, which seems to be part of the Western revival kickstarted by Kevin Costner and Yellowstone. Since Henry Cavill is currently something of a franchise free-agent, it will be interesting to see whether this is a one-off or an attempt to build a new brand for himself.
The Last Gunslinger will star Henry Cavill as a retired gunfighter (presumably in the Old West) who is brought back into action by a dangerous gang invading the town in which he lives. On a number of levels, this is one of the most archetypal tales in the canon of Western movies; the genre is positively lousy with retired deadly, stoic men like Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven, Alan Ladd in Shane, and (you guessed it) Kevin Costner in Open Range who are drawn back into violence by the arrival of even worse men.
However, given that Westerns are nothing if not traditionalist films at heart, we should probably not blame Henry Cavill for not having a more creative spin on the genre. There is always the possibility that the people behind The Last Gunslinger will have some sort of spin on the material, but at this point, even revisionist Westerns have settled into a nice rut of gritty conventionality.
Henry Cavill will be directed in The Last Gunslinger by Dexter Fletcher, the Guy Ritchie actor turned increasingly prominent director. In the last several years, Fletcher directed Taron Egerton in the Elton John biopic Rocketman as well as several episodes of the Miles Teller making-of-Godfather series The Offer. His newest picture is the upcoming Ghosted, the latest pairing of Chris Evans and Ana de Armas; this time around, Evans will be a goofy, incredibly chiseled, and handsome ordinary guy who has a great first date with de Armas, who turns out to be a secret agent and hijinks ensue.
At this point, it almost seems like Henry Cavill has some kind of checklist of film genres that he is working through. So far, he has superhero (his near-decade run as Superman), fantasy (his recently vacated position as the Witcher), spy thriller (Mission: Impossible and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), sexy history (The Tudors), and Sherlock Holmes (Enola Holmes). Making a Western film like The Last Gunslinger seems to be a logical choice for Cavill, especially given that Hollywood is going all in on cowboys staring at horizons right now. Henry Cavill seems to have his pick of franchises and genres right now, so we’ll just have to see how he does with the Western.
