The tortured blockbuster team-up of action icons that shot half a decade ago is heading to Netflix next month

In isolation, a big budget action blockbuster that stars Jackie Chan and John Cena in the lead roles premiering exclusively on Netflix would be a cause for celebration, but there are plenty of reasons why Hidden Strike should be viewed with skepticism.

Although it obviously isn’t going to be referenced in the marketing and promotion, Need for Speed and The Expendables 4 director Scott Waugh’s latest feature is nowhere close to being his latest at all, with shooting having actually been completed all the way back in 2018, even if it was only last month the trailer dropped.

Speculation has run rampant as to why Hidden Strike has spent so long sitting on the shelf, with conspiracies ranging from the COVID pandemic to China’s desire to shy away from utilizing Hollywood stars in its homegrown efforts, via Cena’s accidental reference to Taiwan as an independent nation that caused a massive uproar on the mainland.

Either way, What’s on Netflix has revealed that the end product will finally be made available to the masses on July 28, almost six five years to the day since principal photography wrapped. At various points known as Snafu, Project X, and Project X-Traction before finally settling on its current moniker, the finish line finally being sight can only be seen as a good thing.

Furthermore, its status as a Netflix “original” also ensures that it’s destined to draw in a much bigger audience than it would have done had it been sent into theaters to most likely go down in a ball of box office flames.