Summary

• Ryan Gosling's hot streak faces a challenge with The Gray Man 2.
• The project is a sequel to his first movie since 2017 to receive a low Rotten Tomatoes score.
• Netflix's promise to focus on quality over quantity with their tentpole franchises could potentially benefit The Gray Man 2.

One Netflix project threatens to detail a hot streak for Ryan Gosling. The star began his career as a child actor in projects predominantly on television including The Mickey Mouse Club, Young Hercules, and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, but quickly transitioned into more adult roles in the mid-2000s. Early Ryan Gosling movies in this vein include The Notebook and Lars and the Real Girl. Since transitioning to adult roles, he has gone on to earn three Oscar nominations, for playing Dan Dunne in 2006's Half Nelson, Sebastian in 2016's La La Land, and Ken in 2023's Barbie.

Although the star stepped away from acting for several years after his role in 2018's First Man, Gosling's recent comeback sees him on a hot streak, particularly thanks to his role as Ken. In addition to the record-breaking Barbie box office that made it the No. 1 movie of 2023, the movie led him to an Oscar nomination and a performance of the nominated song "I'm Just Ken" at the Academy Awards ceremony. His movie The Fall Guy looks to continue his big screen success with a strong Rotten Tomatoes score, even though its commercial success remains to be seen.

The Gray Man 2 Risks Ruining Ryan Gosling's Current Movie Hot Streak

Ryan Gosling's Post-Barbie Career Could Hit A Snag

Ryan Gosling's current cinematic hot streak will face its first major hurdle with the The Gray Man 2. The Netflix sequel is a follow-up to the star's only movie since 2017 to receive a Rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes. Below, see how Gosling's movies from the last seven years have stacked up critically on both Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic:

The Gray Man, in which he played mysterious CIA agent Sierra Six, was Gosling's first major onscreen role since he returned to acting, and has so far been his only movie of the 2020s not to be well-received critically. The sequel, which is in active development, could be similarly received. While the Chris Hemsworth action sequel Extraction 2 proved that Netflix sequels can improve on the originals by earning a Rotten Tomatoes score of 79% compared to Extraction's 67%, even increasing The Gray Man's rating by that same factor would leave the sequel with a Rotten score.

Netflix's Promise For Future Action Movies Is A Good Sign For The Gray Man 2

The Sequel Could Potentially Outdo The Gray Man

While The Gray Man 2 could still be a hurdle, one Netflix promise could be a good sign. The streaming service recently shared that they intended to focus on quality over quantity with their tentpole franchises, which could mean that the Ryan Gosling sequel will receive special attention that the original did not. If that is the case, the star's hot streak could continue and allow him to dominate the movie industry both at home and in theaters.