Netflix Spy Action Movie Should Have Started Blockbuster Franchise
Henry Cavill never got to be James Bond and he ended up playing a (great) villain in the Mission: Impossible franchise, but Cavill undoubtedly deserves a spy franchise of his own as evidenced by his performance in 2015’s The Man from UNCLE. Unfortunately, the Guy Ritchie flick was a box office bomb and didn’t get the attention it deserved, so Cavill had yet another franchise opportunity taken away. If you haven’t checked out this underrated flick for yourself yet, you can stream it now on Netflix.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
The Man from UNCLE is directed by Guy Ritchie and co-written by Ritchie and Lionel Wigram with a cast that includes Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Debicki, and Hugh Grant.
Based on the 1960s TV series of the same name, the film takes place during the Cold War when a criminal organization plans to use nuclear weapons to tip the balance of power between the US and the Soviet Union. This forces CIA Agent Napoleon Solo (Cavill) and KGB agent Illya Kuryakin (Hammer) to work together to prevent a global catastrophe.
Unfortunately, It Flopped
The Man from UNCLE has all the makings of a successful spy franchise, but it just didn’t end up being the hit people thought it would be.
It only made $107 million worldwide on a budget of $74-84 million and the reviews were mixed upon release. However, audiences have gradually come around the film and realized the potential of Cavill returning as Solo for more films.
James Bond Fan Casting
I’m a big fan of Bond and Mission: Impossible movies like most spy fans, but I also wouldn’t mind some fresh blood in the classic spy genre.
While The Man from UNCLE didn’t find success, it was pretty fresh and fun and Henry Cavill is as great of a lead spy as we all suspected when fans were calling for him to be the next James Bond. Cavill has also said he’d be interested in reprising his role for a sequel, though it seems like that may never happen.
A Series?
The Man from UNCLE also has the freneticism and bombast you would expect from a Guy Ritchie film, and audiences are almost always down for a good Guy Ritchie theater experience.
Just look at his 2019 film The Gentlemen, which frankly was a more middling effort than The Man from UNCLE but ended up getting a TV series anyway.
The TV series ended up being better than the film in my opinion, so maybe The Man from UNCLE could get its own Netflix show sometime in the future.
Stream It Now
GFR SCORE
But, for now at least, we only have the film and the original TV series that inspired it. There’s definitely room for more big-budget spy film franchises in Hollywood, and The Man from UNCLE is just as deserving of a sequel as any. Maybe if enough people give it the old Netflix boost, the streamer will take note and give Guy Ritchie the chance to make another TV series.
