'Kate' First Look: Mary Elizabeth Winstead Is An Assassin Battling Through Tokyo In Netflix Action-Thriller
After Mary Elizabeth Winstead's scene-stealing performance in Birds of Prey proved that the actress has some bonafide action chops, it feels like there haven't been enough people calling for Winstead to become the next big action star. But Netflix is already ahead of the game with Kate, an action-thriller starring Winstead as an assassin on a job in Tokyo, who only has 24 hours to live before a poison kills her. See the Kate first look images below.
Kate First Look
Entertainment Weekly debuted the first images of Kate, a Japan-set action thriller starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead that is coming to Netflix this fall.
"Kate is a ruthless assassin who is on a job in Tokyo, and she gets poisoned," Winstead described to EW. "She finds out she has 24 hours to live before the poison kills her, so she sets out on a mission to find out who poisoned her and kill them before she dies. Along the way, she forges this bond with this teenage girl named Ani (Miku Martineau), and they end up taking on this mission together. It's a heartfelt, brutal, assassin story!"
Kate is directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (The Huntsman: Winter's War) and also stars Woody Harrelson as Kate's handler, as well as Tadanobu Asano, Michiel Huisman, Jun Kunimura, and Japanese action and musician Miyavi, who plays a dangerous foe to Winstead's hitwoman. The film is written by Umair Aleem and produced by Bryan Unkeless, Kelly McCormick, and Patrick Newall.
"Woody is Woody," Nicolas-Troyan told EW. "He's an adventure in itself, for sure. But he's very committed and he is super easy to work with. He gives that swagger to that character. He wasn't on the set for very long but we made it count."
While I'm all for more movies that tap into Winstead's way-underused potential as action star, I do balk a little at yet another Japan-set movie from Netflix that feels like it's throwing in the "exotic" setting and a few beloved Japanese actors to make up for a formulaic story. We've seen it with 2018's The Outsider starring Jared Leto and 2019's The Earthquake Bird starring Alicia Vikander, both movies that vanished into the ether of the Netflix algorithm almost as soon as they debuted. I like Winstead enough that I hope it doesn't happen to her, though Kate's story doesn't seem promising — it just seems like another post-John Wick action flick.
Kate is set to debut globally on Netflix in Fall 2021.