Universal Pictures’ “The 355,” a woman-led spy thriller starring Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Diane Kruger, Fan Bingbing and Penelope Cruz, has released a first trailer for the film, which is set for a theatrical release on Jan. 15, 2021.
The movie follows a team of spies from various international agencies who must band together to prevent brewing conflicts and halt an incident that could send shockwaves through the world. The women put aside rivalries and distrust to form a faction, code-named “355” after the first woman spy in the American Revolution. Sebastian Stan and Edgar Ramírez also co-star.
The film’s Twitter account teased the trailer’s release with posters of each of the leads, with Chastain playing Mace, Nyong’o as Khadijah, Cruz as Graciela, Kruger as Marie and Fan as Lin Mi Sheng. The women hail from the United States, United Kingdom, Colombia, Germany and China, respectively. Following the release of the posters, some fans expressed dismay at Cruz’s represented nation, as the actor is of Spanish not Colombian descent.
Simon Kinberg will direct the film from a script he co-wrote with Theresa Rebeck. Chastain and Kelly Carmichael will serve as producers for the actor’s Freckle Films, along with Kinberg for his Genre Films. Richard Hewitt (“Bohemian Rhapsody,” “The Theory of Everything”) is set to executive produce.
Chastain first proposed the idea for a woman-led spy film while working with Kinberg on “X-Men: Dark Phoenix.” The cast came together two years ago with CAA Film Finance brokering the deal and Film Nation handling international sales.
The high-profile film previously hit a snag in 2018 when Fan was accused of tax evasion and disappeared for months. After admitting to the charges and paying more than $100 million in fines, back taxes, interest and late payment fees, she emerged from hiding and returned to the project, which will mark her first role since the scandal.
Watch the trailer below.