Since her first breakout role in Doctor Who over a decade ago, Karen Gillan has been slowly rising up the Hollywood ladder. She’s continually been adding new strings to her bow, proving herself as a hugely versatile and multi-talented actress and filmmaker in the process.
She’s done the damsel in distress thing in horror hit Oculus and headlined her own TV series with the criminally underrated one-season wonder Selfie, which didn’t even get to air all of its episodes before being canceled. She then moved into the blockbuster business as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Nebula and the Jumanji franchise’s Ruby Roundhouse.
On top of that, she wrote and directed acclaimed festival favorite The Party’s Just Beginning, and is just as likely to drop by awards-baiting prestige dramas as critical and commercial duds, as evidenced by her supporting roles in projects as wildly disparate as The Big Short and Stuber.
However, one thing she hasn’t done as of yet is play a badass action hero, which is set to change imminently when Gunpowder Milkshake comes to Netflix on Wednesday. Gillan described the propulsive thriller as something akin to John Wick and Kill Bill, something the trailers have more than made clear.
A sequel is already in early development, so production company StudioCanal are obviously confident that audiences are going to love the movie, and there’s every chance those predictions will be right on the money. After all, the prospect of Karen Gillan, Lena Headey, Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeoh and Angela Bassett getting their hands very dirty in a violent, R-rated actioner that promises no shortage of style is almost certainly going to crash straight into the higher end of the Netflix Top 10 most-watched list.