Netflix’s track record with book adaptations has been mostly positive, producing acclaimed features like Remarkably Bright Creatures and globally popular series like Bridgerton. Its attempt to create an entire franchise out of The Gray Man, however, didn’t go as planned. In 2022, Avengers helmers Anthony and Joe Russo delivered their big-budget take on Mark Greaney‘s 2009 spy thriller novel of the same name to icy reviews from critics, though plenty of viewers tuned in to watch the Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans-led action. Both a sequel and spin-off film were planned, but it seems unlikely the sprawling series they had planned will pan out, with The Gray Man 2 facing constant delays since then. However, the source material hasn’t missed a beat in the time since.
Since 2016, a year hasn’t gone by without a new Courtland Gentry adventure hitting store shelves. The action-packed 15th installment, The Hard Line, released back in February and again brought Greaney’s series up the New York Times bestseller list, reaching upon its debut. It found the legendary assassin on the back foot, with the feds compromised, intelligence community members dropping like flies, and himself dodging one close call after another. He and his team had to contend with the hit squads wiping out high-profile players left and right, as well as another renowned contract killer who came out of retirement with a score to settle with Court. The next installment is now already set to follow that up, coming almost exactly a year after Greaney’s prior novel shipped out.
The Gray Man‘s 16th novel, Dark Union, will be published by Berkley and brought to stores everywhere on February 16, 2027, leaving just under four months until Court’s return. His next mission will be a deeply personal one, too. At his late father’s funeral, the assassin reckons with the reality that he’s the last surviving member of his family until his supposedly deceased brother shows up to pay his last respects before once again vanishing. Court’s police officer sibling died nine years ago in a shooting in the line of duty, as far as he knew, so his sudden appearance sends the agent on a search for the truth as to how he survived all these years. The dark state isn’t keen on giving up its secrets, though.
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
What Happened in Netflix’s ‘The Gray Man’?
Image via Stanislav Honzik /©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection
Image via Netflix
Image via Netflix
Image via NetflixAlso starring Ana de Armas, Regé-Jean Page, Billy Bob Thornton, Jessica Henwick, Dhanush, and Alfre Woodard, Netflix’s The Gray Man starts from the beginning of Court’s journey in the novels. Once the CIA’s most talented agent with an identity known to no one, everything changes when he stumbles upon agency secrets he wasn’t supposed to. His discovery puts him in the crosshairs of psychopathic former colleague and mercenary Lloyd Hansen (Evans), beginning a globe-trotting chase as Court evades assassins sent by the agency and attempts to learn and expunge the full extent of the agency’s corruption. If The Gray Man 2 ever happens, it’s expected to adapt the second book, On Target, though the Russo brothers have admitted there “isn’t any momentum right now.”
Dark Union releases on February 16, 2027. Stay tuned here at Collider for more on the future of The Gray Man both on-screen and on the page. Sign up for a free trial of Audible to explore more books and comics in the meantime.
The Gray Man
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