Kevin Hart and Henry Cavill join Netflix spy comedy from McG

Kevin Hart is going back to Netflix, this time with Henry Cavill as his co-star, in an untitled high-concept spy action comedy that Deadline, Variety and TheWrap confirmed on June 5, 2026, setting up one of the most commercially loaded casting announcements the streaming platform has made this year.

The film, directed by McG, whose credits include Charlie’s Angels, Terminator Salvation and This Means War, follows two rival spies who cross paths in a Lamaze class after their wives become fast friends. Their double lives collide in unexpectedly hilarious and dangerous ways, forcing the two men to reluctantly become confidantes and partners on the road to fatherhood. The script was written by Adam and Aaron Nee, who most recently penned Amazon MGM’s Masters of the Universe, and Jonathan Tropper, the creator of the television series Banshee and Warrior.

The project is produced by Shawn Levy and Dan Levine through 21 Laps, the production company behind Stranger Things and Deadpool and Wolverine; Ryan Reynolds and George Dewey through Maximum Effort; and Hart himself through Hartbeat, the production company that has been navigating a turbulent period following layoffs of approximately 25 percent of its staff earlier this year. Hart’s involvement as both star and producer through Hartbeat gives the project commercial significance beyond his acting fee: it is a significant deal for a company that needed a significant deal.

Cavill’s involvement is the component that gives the project its commercial ceiling. Coming off Guy Ritchie’s action film In the Grey alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, and with Enola Holmes 3 on Netflix set for a summer 2026 release, Cavill arrives with both franchise credibility on the streaming platform and the kind of action film legitimacy that Hart’s comedic profile has previously been paired with to strong commercial effect, as the Jumanji series demonstrated. Cavill is also set to headline the Highlander reboot for Amazon MGM Studios and a Voltron adaptation, making the Netflix project one of three major films he has in various stages of production simultaneously.

No release date has been confirmed. Production is expected to begin towards the end of 2026 or into 2027. The untitled nature of the project suggests a script that is still in final development rather than a greenlit production ready to schedule.

For Hartbeat specifically, the Netflix deal signals that despite the operational restructuring of the past year, Hart’s commercial value as a talent remains sufficient to attract projects of genuine scale. The pairing with Cavill, Levy and Reynolds, three of the most commercially reliable names in contemporary Hollywood production, is not a project that assembles around a talent in decline. It is a project built around a talent whose individual brand remains bankable enough to anchor a production with that level of institutional support.

Hart’s history with Netflix has been financially significant. Me Time, The Man from Toronto and Fatherhood have all performed solidly on the platform in terms of viewership, and Netflix’s willingness to continue backing Hart projects at scale reflects a streaming calculus that prioritises consistent viewership delivery over critical consensus, a metric by which Hart has consistently delivered.

The commercial implications of the announcement for Hartbeat extend beyond the production fees. A major Netflix project announced publicly stabilises the company’s market positioning after a difficult public period, signals to the industry that Hartbeat remains operational and deal-capable, and gives Hart’s team a production credit to point to in every partnership and sponsorship conversation for the next two years. In the entertainment business, announcements of this kind do work that the press release cannot fully describe.