Henry Cavill has so many franchises under his belt, he’s practically a cinematic universe all on his own. In particular, when you want bone-crunching, arm-reloading action, you turn to the man who is Superman and Geralt of Rivia. Not to mention the guy behind the upcoming Highlander remake and Amazon’s burgeoning Warhammer universe.
And yet Cavill is teasing that the other latest franchise he’s working on will feature a whole new type of action scene that even those who’ve caught all his DC movies and episodes of The Witcher haven’t seen before. Following The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the British beefcake is returning to the spy genre in Argylle, in which Cavill plays the titular secret agent.
But, wait, the thing about Argylle is that it offers a twist on the well-worn genre. Cavill’s Agent Argylle is actually a fictional character created by Bryce Dallas Howard’s Ellie Conway who gets swept up in an adventure of her own when Sam Rockwell’s actual spy recruits her. And this blurring of reality and fiction is key to what will make Argylle‘s action scenes so thrilling.
While breaking his silence on the top-secret project with Entertainment Weekly, Henry Cavill revealed that one train fight sequence switches between reality — featuring Rockwell’s character — and fiction — with Cavill’s Argylle — which meant that the pair had to match each other physical performances. The actor admitted that bringing the scene to life was “tricky and complex”:
“Sam and I were watching each other and just trying to make sure that we had a similarity of movements,” Cavill explained. “Certain movements worked better for him, so I would mimic those, and then different movements in other places worked better for me, so he would copy those. Fight scenes are tricky and complex, especially in a cramped space like that with lots of hard edges.”
That said, Cavill stressed that it was “quite nice” getting to work so closely with Rockwell and he embraced the “challenge”:
“It’s quite nice doing these things when you have someone doing the exact same work as you,” Cavill said. “So I do my bit, or Sam does his thing, and the other one gets to rest. The camera moves on, and we get to have a nice break. It was definitely a new way of doing things, but I enjoyed it. It was a good challenge.”
Why Argylle marks a huge shift in Henry Cavill’s action career
It’s not just the unique action that sets Argylle apart from Cavill’s previous roles either, as it can be argued that Vaughn’s movie makes a significant shift in his career that could give us a hint where the actor is going next post-Superman and Geralt.
In many ways, Argylle is a send-up, or at least a subversion, of the audience’s image of Cavill as the archetypal action star. It’s certainly playing with the fact that he’s a celebrated contender to become the next James Bond. The fictional Agent Argylle character is supposed to be a stereotypical secret agent and action protagonist, so casting Cavill was the perfect choice.
At the same time, it also suggests Cavill is well aware of his status and indicates that maybe he’s looking to tinker or expand his image somewhat in future projects. He’s definitely using the sway he’s amassed to get his passion projects off the ground, like the aforementioned Warhammer 20K series.
With Vaughn’s films angling itself as the first of a new multi-movie franchise, Argylle could offer Cavill the ultimate opportunity to deliver his version of Bond as well as doing something far more interesting at the same time.
Argylle blasts into theaters on Feb. 2, 2024.