National Award-winning actor Dhanush will be a mighty busy man in 2021 as a number of his upcoming big ventures are in various stages of development, including a few films gearing up for their release. As fans continue to debate on whether his Jagame Thanthiram under Karthik Subbaraj's direction will be coming out in theatres or on OTT, producer Kalaipuli S. Thanu had recently announced that the actor's Karnan under Pariyerum Perumal fame Mari Selvaraj's direction will be hitting screens worldwide on April 9. 

As for his next projects in development, Dhanush wrapped up his Bollywood film, Atrange Re, alongside Akshay Kumar and Sara Ali Khan, while he also has in the pipeline Tamil ventures namely Ratsasan director Ramkumar's D42 and Karthick Naren's tentatively titled D43 under the Sathya Jyothi Films banner, including Sun Pictures’ D44 and a project with director Vetri Maaran to be produced by Elred Kumar's RS Infotainment banner. With such a big lineup ahead, it came as a massive delight to fans when Dhanush was announced to be a part of the Hollywood Netflix venture, The Gray Man, under the Avengers: Endgame director duo The Russo brothers. 

In that light, Dhanush recently left for the United States to attend a workshop before beginning shooting for his portions in The Gray Man under Anthony and Joe Russo's direction, which is expected to kick-off most likely from the first week of March. Touted to be an action thriller, the upcoming film is an adaptation of Mark Greaney's debut novel, with the popular author during a recent interaction revealing details about Dhanush's role. Surprised himself by Dhanush's casting in the film, including the actor's massive fan following, Mark Greaney stated that the Tamil superstar is likely playing a head of one of the teams that is after Ryan Gosling, who has been cast in the role of Court Gentry, a former CIA operative turned freelance assassin. 

Speaking about Dhanush, Mark Greaney said, "It is fascinating to me that they cast an Indian actor Dhanush, whom I am not familiar with. I assume he plays one of the heads of the kill team that is after Court Gentry (played by Ryan Gosling)." He added, "I have some 6000 followers on Twitter and it is nothing special. Then Dhanush followed me on Twitter, the Indian actor who is going to be in 'The Gray Man'. I was like wow he is following me and he has some 9.7 million followers. He is a very big deal." Apart from Dhanush and Ryan Gosling, The Gray Man's star-studded cast includes names like Captain America star Chris Evans, followed by Wagner Moura, Julia Butters and Jessica Henwick among others, with the production budget set at approximately $200 million. 

Watch The Gray Man author Mark Greaney speak about Dhanush in the video below: