Picture: Empire Online / Netflix
Havoc is the long-awaited crime drama starring Tom Hardy (The Revenant, Venom). Directed and written by Gareth Evans, the movie has been coming for a long time but will finally hit our screens in early 2025. Here’s everything we know about the action thriller as of late 2024, including the brand new first look at the movie courtesy of Empire Online.
Gareth Evans is best known for his Indonesian martial arts films, The Raid, The Raid 2, and Merantau, through which he brought the Indonesian martial art of Pencak Silat into world cinema. The Welsh native is also known for creating and directing Sky Atlantic’s critically acclaimed series Gangs of London, which stars Joe Cole (Black Mirror, Peaky Blinders) and Michelle Fairley (Game of Thrones).
Gareth Evans on the set of Gangs of London
Havoc was first announced publicly in early 2021 when it was also revealed that he was working with the streamer under an overall deal, albeit the project had been in development long before. According to Deadline, both sides wanted to ensure Tom Hardy was locked before announcing anything. Netflix liked Evans’ style very much and began working out a deal after collaborating on the 2018 horror-thriller Apostle, which starred Dan Stevens, Michael Sheen, and Lucy Boynton.
The producers behind Netflix’s Havoc are Gareth Evans for One More One Productions (Apostle), Ed Talfan for Severn Screen (Apostle, The Pembrokeshire Murders), and Aram Tertzakian for XYZ Films (Mandy, The Silencing). Leading star Tom Hardy is also set to produce.
What is the plot of Havoc?
The official logline for Netflix’s Havoc has been revealed via Deadline:
“The story is set after a drug deal gone wrong, when a bruised detective must fight his way through a criminal underworld to rescue a politician’s estranged son, while unraveling a deep web of corruption and conspiracy that ensnares his entire city.”
Evans spoke about the movie in 2021 to Forbes and suggested it won’t become a franchise and is designed to be a standalone project. He told the outlet:
“That’s a movie that is definitely a standalone project. There are no current plans for that to become a franchise. I think on a project by project basis, if I pitch something and I feel like it has legs, and it could part one of two or three or wherever, that’s certainly a conversation to be had.”
Picture: Netflix
Picture: Netflix
Picture: Netflix
Who is in the cast of Netflix’s Havoc?
Tom Hardy and Forest Whittaker – Pictures: XYZ Films
In February 2021, Tom Hardy was announced to star in Netflix’s Havoc. Hardy will star as the leading character, Walker, the aforementioned ‘bruised detective’. Hardy is known for his roles in many films and TV series including The Dark Knight Rises, Mad Max: Fury Road, Venom, Capone, Inception, Peaky Blinders, and more.
On March 22, 2021, Forest Whitaker was announced to co-star in Havoc along with Hardy. The details of Whitaker’s character still remain under wraps. Whitaker previously starred in the Netflix Original holiday musical Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey.
On June 28th, Timothy Olyphant was also confirmed to be starring in Havoc. Further cast members were also announced, adding the talents of Jessie Mei Li, Justin Cornwell, and Yann Yann Yeo.
The remaining supporting cast members have been confirmed to be Quelin Sepulveda, Luis Guzmán, Sunny Pang, Tom Wu, Richard Harrington, Jill Winternitz, Quelin Sepulveda, Jennifer Armour, and Michelle Waterson.
Xelia Mendes-Jones will also be featured in the film, playing the role of Johnny. Having just starred in Prime Video’s Fallout, they spoke to Collider about their time in the upcoming film.
Picture: justin_cornwell / Instagram
What’s the production status of Havoc?
Filming for Havoc began on July 8th, 2021, in Cardiff, Wales. Production lasted for a few months before officially coming to an end on October 22nd, 2021.
Various locations across South Wales were used, such as the Barry Island Pleasure Park and Brangwyn Hall in Swansea.
A report in September 2021 suggests that Cardiff was turned into a “snowy American scene” for the movie taking place at Bute Street. Per their report, “Residents and business owners in Bute Street were sent a letter from Netflix last week about filming taking place over four nights between September 27 to September 30.”
Since October ’21, the feature has been in post-production, but in an update, Gareth Evans stated that the movie had some additional filming work to be done.
An update from the director in November 2022 suggested the movie could still be headed for a 2023 release, but it could be a squeeze. In the post, Gareth Evans states:
“Fully aware of my radio silence regarding Havoc for some time, just wanted to take the opportunity to update you all on the progress of the film having seen a number of questions pop up on a few of my posts lately.
We’re still plugging away at it, doing all we can to make the film the best it can be. Part of that involves a small amount of additional photography that we are hoping to shoot soon – we’re almost there – but “almost there” still means it will be some time before the film is complete and ready for release.
Apologies, that does mean there won’t be any teasers / trailers anytime soon (not until we have the entire film and all it’s VFX components locked) – hopefully the film will be completed next summer with materials following sometime Q3/Q4 of next year.
Appreciate your patience, and apologies once again for the delay.
Sincerely hope you find the film worth the wait.”
The next public update from Gareth Evans came in an interview from Sitges 2023 (taking place in October 2023, although the interview was only published in March 2024), where Evans told Il Cineocchio that the additional filming had yet to take place and provided a big update on why the project had been so quiet, saying:
“We are 95% done. We’re not there yet. What happens is we’re 95% done. We got a really great film. It’s really solid. There’s about a week’s left of additional photography that needs to be done on it that we were hoping to get done a while ago. But then the problem was we shot that film in the middle of the pandemic. And then when the pandemic finished, you had this whole thing where because so much of the industry stood down for six months that it became almost like a bonanza town where everybody was making films all the time. And then, you know, you get this big ensemble of a cast together for your project. And then all of a sudden you finish. They go off and do different projects, right? And there are some people over here, some people over there. To get them all back together again for that same week was really difficult. And then just as we were getting close to figuring out the date that would work and then also figuring out the creative process of what the additional photography would be, then all of a sudden it’s like the writer’s strike kicked in and then the actor’s strike kicked in. So then we had to stand down. And obviously we were like in solidarity with the writers, in solidarity with the actors. And so like we are effectively in standby mode, waiting.
And then once, I know the writer’s strike is over now, but the actors are still waiting. So in solidarity with them, we’re waiting. And once we get given the go ahead and we can actually get back into work again, then we’ll start working on it again. It’ll probably take us another, I reckon, I don’t think we’ll come out until another, maybe another year from now at the earliest, because we have to shoot a week’s worth of production. Then we’ll have to edit that. Then we’ll have to do VFX work on that. Then we’ll have to do the color grade and then the sound mixing. So all of that stuff needs to get done. And then it has to be packaged and it has to be ready and it has to be promoted and then it gets released. So all of those things, you take a month for each one of those things, maybe more.”
Scooper and journalist Jeff Sneider was on The Hot Mic podcast in December 2023 and provided some updates on the production. Responding to a question about the fact it’s been two years since the project was filmed, Sneider stated, “Havoc has been on my most anticipated list for like the last two years” and suggested then that it will be released in 2024. He also mentions a rumor about haircuts causing delays: “They had to do kind of extensive reshoots, but like everyone came back with different haircuts,” which led to significant visual effects costs.
According to UK Casting News, the additional filming took place in the Summer of 2024 in Wales with that additional filming wrapping on July 20th, 2024. Evan wrote on Instagram following the conclusion of filming the additional scenes:
“Only the most glamorous of locations. But working with the best of friends.
That’s a wrap on additional photography for Havoc. Massive thanks to cast and crew for their support and hard work over the past 2 weeks.
Next up…. 5-6months of post (editing, VFX, colour, sound) so we can make everything nice and shiny and loud ready for what will hopefully be a Q1 release next year.
No trailer, promo materials will be released before the film is finalised and mastered so in a bid to temper expectations – don’t expect anything before the new year.
Until then, excuse me while I crack on with work, posting about other people’s movies (do go see Longlegs!) and the occasional snap of my Labrador.”
Speaking about the additional filming to Empire Magazine, Evans said, “It’s had a profound effect on the film; it allowed me to better streamline it, and make it what it was always intended to be, which is a blistering, fast-paced action-thriller with nods to the Hong Kong cinema that I grew up watching.”
When will Havoc be released on Netflix?
As filming ended in October 2021, many would be forgiven for thinking Havoc would be released on Netflix in 2022. However, given the extensive post-production period, additional filming, strikes, and more, we’re still in 2024 without a release date or window!
As outlined by Evans above and confirmation from Netflix itself, Havoc is set to arrive in early 2025.
Are you looking forward to Havoc on Netflix? Let us know in the comments, and keep this bookmarked for all future updates.
Note: Contains contributions by Tigran Asatryan.
