If you’re a Tom Hardy fan, you’ve always wanted to see him cause real havoc. Sure, across his career he’s manufactured mayhem, proffered pain, brought memorable muscle – but you’ve never seen him go really all-out. That’s about to change. Next year finally brings the release of HAVOC, the new film from The Raid legend Gareth Evans, returning from the high-octane small-screen antics of Gangs Of London, and ready to send Hardy into the hardman stratosphere.
The film has been a longtime coming – partly owing to additional photography that required a cast and crew of booked-and-busy brawlers to all be available. But as Evans promises, HAVOC is worth the wait. “It’s had a profound effect on the film,” he tells Empire of the extra shooting. “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.” Sounds like a Gareth Evans film, then.
Yes, rest assured that HAVOC will bring exactly what you’re hoping for from a Hardy-Evans team-up. “When it comes to a film called HAVOC, with me and Tom Hardy, we deliver on the action front,” the director promises. “That’s the primary focus. But with Tom, what you get as well is an intensely muscular central performance, and really well-developed character. There’s a lot going on under the hood.” Specifically, under the hood of Hardy’s Walker – a cop tasked with rescuing the nephew of Forest Whitaker’s mayor. It won’t be easy. “He’s basically on clean-up duty,” explains Evans, “and he has to navigate this broken city in order to get to him first. That’s the propulsive mission he goes on, and because it’s me, it doesn’t go well for a long time.” Bring the pain.
Read more about HAVOC in Empire’s Ultimate 2025 Preview, led by Andor Season 2, in the January 2025 issue. Pre-order a copy online here. HAVOC comes to Netflix in 2025.