A blockbuster spy thriller hailing from a director with a proven track record in the genre that boasts an insanely stacked cast and set a streaming service back $200 million purely to secure the rights sounds like an unmissable action epic on the surface, but Argylle has been so long coming that people have completely forgotten it existed.
That shouldn’t be the case when you’ve got Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class, and Kingsman filmmaker Matthew Vaughn calling the shots on a globetrotting high concept adventure that features Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa, Sam Rockwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bryan Cranston, Samuel L. Jackson, Ariana DeBose, and John Cena to name just a small few among its ensemble, but that’s exactly where we find ourselves.
Shooting first wrapped back in late 2021, but Argylle isn’t releasing until February of next year. During that time, it hasn’t really done much to remind everyone that it’s a thing that’s happening, but based on a recent social media post from Cryptic HD QUALITY – a user famed for dispensing accurate runtime info well ahead of time – it won’t be a particularly short movie.
The first installment of what’s intended to be a major espionage franchise is reportedly coming in at 135 minutes, a fairly substantial running time all things considered. Vaughn’s features tend to be on the breezier side, and when they do run longer you end up with the overstuffed likes of Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which could have really used with some tightening in the edit.
Either way, a trailer is also said to be on the horizon, so it might almost be time for Argylle to return with a vengeance and try to drum up some buzz more than two years after cameras stopped rolling.