How Charlize Theron's John Wick Replacement Was Key To Nicholas Hoult's New Heist Thriller

EXCLUSIVE: Charlize Theron's movie has echoes in an upcoming release.

Director David Leitch has explained how Charlize Theron's John Wick replacement movie was key to developing Nicholas Hoult's new heist thriller, How to Rob a Bank. The forthcoming heist film sees Hoult take on the role of Ryan, leader of a group of bank robbers who livestream their heists and communicate with fans across social media. This leads to a police investigation and high-octane thrills, with Hoult's character at the forefront of the film. The movie arrives in theaters on November 13, 2026.

In an interview with ScreenRant's Brandon Zachary about the upcoming film, Leitch explained how his work directing the Theron-led 2017 thriller Atomic Blonde informed the way he approached How to Rob a Bank almost a decade later. He explained how Atomic Blonde had a number of ongoing, evolving changes during its production due to factors like "budgets and locations and size." This helped inform his approach to How to Rob a Bank, which also had a particular budget and worked with similar limitations.

Check out what Leitch had to say below:

David Leitch: [Of my movies] as a director, Atomic Blonde and How to Rob a Bank are probably the closest siblings, right? In terms of the drama that takes place. The thing I took away from Atomic Blonde — I learned a lot of lessons on that set. You have to focus on what you can change and really take the best of what's given to you in the scene and then move on. I think I learned a lot about the flexibility of filmmaking because that was such a twisty plot, and there were a lot of things changing in real time because of budget and locations and size. Because we had to do [How to Rob a Bank] at a price point, we had similar constraints at times. But having learned those lessons in the past on John Wick and Atomic Blonde, coming into How to Rob a Bank, I was feeling really confident. The decisions that you're making on the day on the battlefield.

Atomic Blonde follows MI6 field agent Lorraine Broughton in the 1980s, sent on a mission to find a list of agents being smuggled into the West ahead of the Berlin Wall's collapse. The action film had a budget of just $30 million, despite also featuring a twisty story and other notable actors like James McAvoy, John Goodman, Sofia Boutella, and Toby Jones in vital roles. Reviews for Atomic Blonde were mostly positive, and the movie managed to earn $100 million at the global box office during its run.

Based on Leitch's statement, production of the action movie required diligence and a flexible working schedule, something that would be vital to the way it was developed. The movie was also the filmmakers directorial debut, leading to him taking the reins on other big-budget projects, including Deadpool 2, Bullet Train, and The Fall Guy. It's clear Atomic Blonde had a major impact across his career, though, with How to Rob a Bank taking note of Leitch's directorial debut in the way its production was approached.

How to Rob a Bank is just one of Leitch's forthcoming projects. The director is also in charge of the upcoming action comedy Jason Statham Stole My Bike, starring Statham as a fictionalized version of himself. Leitch is also the founder of 87North Productions, under which the franchises Nobody and Violent Night have been produced. Needless to say, the director has plenty of experience in producing action movies, which makes the importance of Atomic Blonde to his latest release hold all the more potency.

With Hoult's movie just a few weeks away from arriving in theaters, How to Rob a Bank is shaping up to be another memorable installment amongst Leitch's movies. Since his approach to the film has echoes of Atomic Blonde, it remains to be seen how close the pair will feel in tone and in filmmaking approach. But, since he's proven himself with plenty of high-budget action movies already, his latest film seems poised to impress on a similar scale.

Cast

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  Nicholas Hoult

  Ryan

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  Reagan Gardner

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  Vince

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  John C. Reilly

  Agent West