Why Red Is The Most Underrated DC Adaptation

The quality of DC comic book adaptations that aren’t based on Batman or Superman has improved greatly in the last few years, but the possibilities for DC Films is much more than just the Justice League characters. In the last two decades, there have been many brilliant adaptations of graphic novels from DC’s larger brand of imprints, and they’ve been handled by some incredible filmmakers. Academy Award winner Sam Mendes crafted the gangster epic Road to Perdition, body horror legend David Cronenberg helmed the crime thriller A History of Violence, and the Wachowskis wrote and produced the adaptation of Alan Moore’s masterpiece V for Vendetta.

DC’s WildStorm brand retained editorial freedom from the larger DC Universe until it was shut down in 2010, and later revamped in 2017. Although WildStorm had its own connected universe of costumed heroes, it also ran many limited series that didn’t feature fantasy or science fiction elements. One of the most acclaimed was Warren Ellis’s three-issue miniseries Red, which followed former black ops agents who return to their prior professions in order to uncover a government conspiracy that leads straight to the White House.

Why Do the ‘Red’ Adaptations Work So Well?

There are many ways a film adaptation could have gone. It could have been a hard-edged contemplation of aging akin to A History of Violence, but it also could’ve gone in the “isn’t it funny that they’re old” direction of something like The Expendables. The 2010 adaptation Red isn’t either of those things. It’s an over-the-top, fun action thriller that still grounds its characters and stakes in an emotional reality. Red and its 2013 sequel Red 2 introduced a fun universe that was distinct among DC adaptations, and it’s one that’s sadly not been expanded into the franchise it has the potential to be.

Perhaps you wouldn’t have guessed it based on his larger filmography (which includes such disasters as R.I.P.D., Snake Eyes, and several films within the Divergent franchise), but director Robert Schwentke does a great job at fleshing out formerly lethal characters who are just trying to adjust to a normal life. Bruce Willis has played many versions of a former C.I.A. agent throughout his career, but the R.E.D. (Retired, Extremely Dangerous) Frank Moses is the only one that feels like he’s actually moved on. Frank is a guy whose biggest priorities are putting up his Christmas lights and fulfilling his crush on Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker), but he still doesn’t land a false blow when a team of assassins raids his house.

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Willis plays a completely different type of DC hero than we’ve seen before. He’s well-mannered but still a fish-out-of-water interacting with people who don’t know what it’s like to kill somebody. While the brilliance of A History of Violence or Road to Perdition was showing the haunting reflections that these characters face, Red actually has fun with the idea of a black ops agent rummaging around a supermarket. Willis’s playfully blunt attitude toward his old life is also a humorous counter to his old team of Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) and Victoria Winslow (Helen Mirren), who admit that they just “love killing people.”

‘Red’ Has the Potential to Continue As a Franchise

This is an engaging team of characters, and it’s one of the reasons Red has so much potential as a continued series. Even though Ellis’s initial run told a specific story that the first film adapts, you could place this team in a variety of scenarios that are believable. How many enemies has a team of career assassins made? Their relationships can clearly evolve and add new members, as Red 2 does with the incorporation of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Davis Thewlis’ characters. The fluent cast also makes the stakes more compelling; the death of Morgan Freeman’s Joe Matheson in the first film is surprisingly tragic for a generally light action-comedy. It forces the rest of the characters to genuinely think about their priorities.

When so often comic book films fail to develop compelling villains, the Red films have crafted antagonists that are slightly more nuanced. It would be so easy for films that focus on government conspiracies to have nothing but mustache-twirling politicians who are purely evil, but Red has an eclectic rogue’s gallery. Karl Urban’s CIA agent William Cooper is both a window into the man Frank was, and the ideal of everything he’s ever wanted: he’s a younger field agent who has managed to still have a family. Cooper is given the chance to evolve too; he realizes that he and Frank aren’t that different, and perhaps they’re working towards the same goal.

Even Julian McMahon’s wicked Vice President Robert Stanton is more than just a caricature. His murderous plots stem from the corrupt indifference of a career politician, not a scheming hatred for the R.E.D. team personally. Red 2 also picks fun character actors to pop up as various scheming players within the Red universe; you get the beloved Anthony Hopkins as a wacky Russian scientist, martial arts expert Byung-hun Lee as a menacing gunman, and underrated character actor Neal McDonough as a playfully straightforward corrupt U.S. intelligence officer. The potential for an even more diverse cast is there in later installments.

What’s the Future for a ‘Red’ Franchise?

Perhaps it was the more mixed reception to the second installment that has stalled any real updates on the future of the Red franchise. While the first film was genuinely well-reviewed, Red 2 generated a more mixed response and made about $50 million less worldwide than its predecessor (despite having a higher budget). A third installment was put into development several months before the second film’s release with writers Jon Hoeber and Erich Hoeber returning, but there hasn’t been any word since. NBC had reportedly courted the same pair to develop an hour-long television series according to a 2015 report in Deadline, but nothing has materialized.

Red is a chance for DC to have a solid action franchise running concurrently to their costumed superheroes, and the source material isn’t so complex that there would be an issue adding new fans. Given the wealth of projects in development at HBO Max, Red deserves another shot. Whether it’s a new sequel that brings back the original cast, a serialized spinoff, a complete reboot, or something else entirely, hopefully the franchise isn’t forgotten.