Henry Cavill Recruited to Lead New Rival James Bond-esque Spy Film Series Beginning with Argylle A Film by Matthew Vaughn, So Does This Mean Cavill Won’t Be The Next Bond?

 

James Bond is about to get some competition on the big screen as according to Deadline, Henry Cavill has been recruited to play the lead in the major motion picture Argylle to be directed by Matthew Vaughn based on the upcoming novel of the same name. Argylle is set to be the first of at least three films in a spy film franchise to rival the James Bond movies. The upcoming novel the film is based on is written by Ellie Conway with her story telling the tale of “the world’s greatest spy ‘Argylle’ as he is caught up in a globe-trotting adventure.” Furthermore, the film will be set in America, London, and multiple locations across the world. 

 

Matthew Vaughn, director of X-Men: First Class (2011) and the Kingsman movies will be directing from a script by Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman). In addition to Cavill, Vaughn has assembled an all-star cast for the first installment in the Argylle franchise with A-list stars including Sam Rockwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, John Cena, and Samuel L. Jackson. Also, pop star Dua Lipa will make her acting debut on the film and also provide original music for the title track and score. 

Matthew Vaughn commented on what drew him to the project in the first place:

“When I read this early draft manuscript I felt it was the most incredible and original spy franchise since Ian Fleming’s books of the 50s. This is going to reinvent the spy genre.”

 

  

Vaughn is clearly excited about embarking on new territory in the spy genre and he has made an excellent choice in selecting Cavill as the film’s titular spy. Cavill previously was in The Man from Uncle (2015) where he shined as Napoleon Solo in the remake of the famous 1960s TV series. Before that Cavill was the runner-up to play James Bond in Casino Royale (2006) before the Bond producers ultimately decided to go with Daniel Craig as they wanted somebody older for the role with Craig being in his late 30s to Cavill’s early 20s at the time. Cavill got his big break when he was cast as Superman in Man of Steel (2013) and has thus far reprised that role twice more with his return to the role a bit of a question mark in the current state of the DCEU. The Man from Uncle allowed Cavill to showcase his full range of capabilities as an actor as he powerfully commanded the screen as a suave thief turned spy opposite his dangerous and off-kilter Russian counterpart Illya Kuryakin played by Armie Hammer. While The Man from Uncle was positively received by critics it didn’t have a strong enough box office draw stalling any plans for a sequel. Armie Hammer did keep hope alive for a sequel for a while saying there was an idea for a sequel in development but it seems like at this point if there was going to be a sequel they would have made it by now and now with all the drama currently surrounding Armie Hammer I think it's safe to say that any plans for a sequel are dead in the water. Cavill has returned to the spy world since The Man from Uncle with his deadly and dangerous performance as the villain August Walker in Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018) though it seems like his time with that franchise is concluded with the character of Walker having met a violent end after a cliffside battle with Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. Cavill has continued to make waves with his role as the Witcher in the fantasy Netflix series and has recently been cast in the Highlander reboot and now with him landing the lead role in the Argylle franchise, a series that seems intent on rivaling James Bond it certainly looks like Cavill’s dance card is full at the moment. 

 

 

 

 

 I wasn’t a huge fan of the Kingsman movies but I did appreciate Vaughn’s nod to the 007 movies though on the other hand, I hold Vaughn’s work on X-Men: First Class in high regard as he was able to bring a gritty and intellectual while also intensely visceral aspect to the series that I found to be highly engaging and very reminiscent of the 1960s James Bond era especially with scenes of Fassbender as a young Metallo taking a lot of tonal inspiration from Connery’s Bond with incredible flair. If Vaughn brings those kinds of sensibilities into Argylle I am all aboard for this series which he describes as a reinvention of the spy genre in the same way Ian Fleming propelled the spy genre forward in the 1950s. I highly suspect hyperbole is being employed here by Vaughn but I could see the Argylle character breaking new ground if they tell an original spy story that is different from the traditional government agent/assassin storyline. One possibility that comes to mind is that Argylle is a self-employed spy who topples governments and takes on international criminals on his own acting as a sort of vigilante but in the form of a secret agent rather than superhero. 

 

 

The supporting cast brought in for the first picture will certainly bring a lot of color to the storytelling with high-caliber talents such as Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, and Samuel L. Jackson. While Iron Man 2 (2010) was certainly not the highlight of the MCU, Rockwell was certainly the highlight of that film and his quirky sensibilities should do nicely in a film like this and the possibilities for the character he could play are endless from an aloof bored billionaire who gets caught up in one of Argylle’s spy games to a cunning politician with a quick tongue that steps in to aid Argylle to help advert an international crisis amidst his globe-trotting adventures. Samuel L. Jackson has played a wide range of roles and is no stranger to playing the cool bad man about town such as his Nick Fury character in the MCU but he might possibly end up playing a more broken and tragic character here such as his racist electrician character Zeus from Die Hard with A Vengeance (1995) or he may even play a misunderstood but empathetic villain such as Mr. Glass from Unbreakable (2000). And there's Bryan Cranston who to many is known for his highly-acclaimed performance on the TV series Breaking Bad but not having seen that show as of yet I’m familiar with Cranston from his guest appearance on How I Met Your Mother and his supporting role in Ben Affleck’s Argo (2012). Both of those performances showed me just how versatile a talent he is, balancing both comedy and drama with an undeniably compelling nature that makes you sit up and pay attention to him onscreen. 

 

 

Cavill is more than capable of portraying Argylle and even without having read the as of yet unreleased novel the film is based on I’m sure Cavill will be able to play the role as it is called for on the page. It would be fun to see the fun charming persona of Napoleon Solo again but if Argylle has a dark side to him like Walker in Fallout or even Cavill’s version of Clark Kent/Superman from Man of Steel Cavill will be able to execute Vaughn’s vision without any problems. Argylle is looking to becoming a full-fledged movie series with sequels to come in the future and while other movies have gotten in trouble in the past for putting the cart before the horse in their desire to jumpstart a franchise with examples being the planned Jumper film series starring Hayden Christen, The Mummy franchise starring Tom Cruise, and so forth there are plenty of examples where that kind of foresight has worked out with series such as The Hunger Games films or even the original James Bond films. The Bond producers back in the 60s were eager to start a series based on Ian Fleming’s books that would go on for a long time and they knew at the time that this would be something where they would need to make at least three pictures with the same actor as their Bond. In fact, when they approached Cary Grant to play Bond he would only commit to one film but eventually agreed to do two films but no more but the producers knew to make the series work they needed a Bond with longevity. So they eventually landed on Connery and the series based on the books of the 50s has lasted nearly 6 decades at this point so if Vaughn believes in the Argylle character as much as the Bond producers believed in Bond back in the 60s then there's a chance that this could work out to be the beginning of the next James Bond-level success story. There is the question though will this spy be an American or Englishman because if they have Cavill go the route of playing an American again despite in actuality being British as they did in The Man from Uncle this could be America’s version of James Bond. However, there is also one more key issue to address here: Does Cavill playing Argylle prevent him from becoming the next James Bond?

 

 

The Bond producers have a long track record of going back to actors they had previously approached for the role of Bond and eventually signing them onto the role as happened with Roger Moore who was first approached for Dr. No in 1962 but due to The Saint didn’t end up playing Bond till Live and Let Die in 1973. Timothy Dalton was approached for Bond around the time of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), but Dalton ended up turning down the role at the time as he was in his early 20s and he felt Bond should be more around the age of 35, 40. And sure enough, he ended up stepping into the role at the age of 41 nearly two decades later in The Living Daylights (1987). Pierce Brosnan was originally cast as Bond in The Living Daylights at the age of 34 but was forced to drop out due to his TV series Remington Steele getting renewed but eventually found his way back to the role in GoldenEye (1995) at the age of 42. And then when they were casting for Casino Royale (2006), during the auditioning process it was down to Daniel Craig and Henry Cavill with the director Martin Campbell’s choice being Cavill but the Bond producers ultimately chose Craig over Cavill as they wanted somebody with more experience as Craig was in his later 30s to Cavill’s early 20s. I think in an alternate timeline Cavill would have been a great Bond in Casino Royale though I do realize he was a bit too young for the role at the time as Bond earning his 00 status should be more of around the age of 30, not 23. However, in 2021 with Daniel Craig ending his tenure as Bond with No Time To Die this October at the age of 53 the search will be starting again for the next Bond post-Daniel Craig. Cavill would be perfect for the role now as he is 38 years old, the same age Craig was when Casino Royale was released 15 years ago. The Bond producers may very well follow the pattern of the past and go back to their previously considered Bond to be the next Bond though with Cavill stepping into the role of Argylle a rival James Bond-esque spy film series that could possibly taking Cavill out of the running. But I would make the case that back when The Man from Uncle was released it looked like Cavill was going to do a whole series of those films and even then his co-stars suggested he should play the next Bond with Cavill leaving the door opening after being asked if The Man from Uncle had filled his Bond-esque film quota:

“You know what they are two entirely different things. And yes The Man from Uncle is the spy genre, spy thriller but this is a you know its not even a double-header its an ensemble piece and its just so much fun and cool and sexy and doesn’t take itself too seriously which is a very different vibe from what Bond is. I’m not saying Bond takes itself too seriously but there is definitely a heavier more serious angle to it with some moments of levity.”

 

  

Cavill communicated the tone of Bond perfectly in his comments emphasizing just how much he understands the character and what it would take to effectively play him. Craig’s Bond has often been criticized for being too serious as Bond should be able to enjoy himself in his work and Cavill’s work on the comedic side of things with The Man from Uncle or even just watching him in any interview he does shows just how perfectly suited he is for the role of Bond. The scenario of Cavill playing Bond and Napoleon Solo at the same time was left open as a possibility by Cavill with him articulating the different tones of the two franchises so it will be interesting to see what tone the Argylle franchise will be going for as if it strikes a very similar vibe to Bond the Bond producers may decide Cavill would be too redundant in the role of Bond in addition to Argylle and look for someone else to take on the mantle of Bond, but it is possible Argylle’s reinvention of the spy genre will find the franchise exploring territory within the spy thriller genre but in a very different way from Bond and if the two are differentiated enough from the other then the door could still be open for Cavill to play Argylle and Bond at the same time. 

 

 

 

There is still one more obstacle left in the way of Cavill playing Bond even if Argylle doesn’t prevent him from taking on the role and that is his schedule. The actor has become incredibly busy lately with him taking on the role of the Witcher for Netflix, landing a role in the Highlander reboot, and there's even the possibility Cavill will return to the role of Superman in the near future. Post-Justice League Cavill’s Superman future has been a major question mark and with the absence of a Man of Steel 2 there may have been signs that WB had moved on from Henry Cavill as Superman but The Flash movie is set to introduce the concept of the Multiverse to audiences next year and that could open the door for multiple versions of Superman on the big and small screen with Superman and Lois starring Tyler Hoechlin on the CW, the recently announced J.J. Abram produced African-American version of Superman written by prized author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the potential return of Cavill as Superman. Cavill has repeatedly expressed interest in a return to the role and with Black Adam starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson coming out next year there is a strong possibility Cavill’s Superman may make his return in that film as The Rock and Cavill share the same agent so that could make a lot of business sense in addition to the rumors Cavill’s Superman is heading back onto the scene soon. After that Cavill very well may be getting a Man of Steel 2, 10 years after the original film and if all that falls into place Cavill will be a very busy man playing the Witcher, Argylle, and Superman, not to mention Netflix's Sherlock Holmes all at the same time. And what if the Mission Impossible franchise revealed in a shocking development that Walker somehow miraculously survived the fall from that cliff? If you add Bond on top of all that there could be definite schedule conflict there and there is also the possibility the Bond producers may want a Bond that is more unknown than Cavill is as of now. But Harrison Ford played Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and Jack Ryan so it's not like Cavill couldn’t pull off balancing multiple iconic characters. He certainly has the range to differentiate those characters and if the scheduling logistics can be figured out it really would be the best of all worlds if Cavill could play all these iconic characters at the same time, Bond included. 

 

 

In any case, Cavill will be leading a new spy film series that has Matthew Vaughn excited to help reinvent the spy genre in basing Argylle off the yet-to-be-released novel by Ellie Conway. This reminds me of the blockbuster success of The Firm written by John Grisham as that best-seller was quickly made into a movie starring Tom Cruise in the early 90s to highly successful results. The Bond books took a bit longer to get from the written page to the big screen after the failed TV adaptation in the 50s but the Bond producers eventually did get it up and running to legendary results in the early 60s with Dr. No. Matthew Vaughn sounds like he has ambitious plans just as the Bond producers did all those decades ago and if the prolific filmmaker puts as much charisma and style into this new franchise as he did his soft reboot of the X-Men franchise Argylle may very well end up being an epic cinematic experience. The first film starts rolling cameras next month in Europe for a 2022 release date. So what do you think, will Cavill be able to be Matthew Vaughn's Argylle and Ian Fleming's James Bond/ the seventh 007 actor overall at the same time?