Michael Fassbender's assassin in The Killer is NOT like James Bond

David Fincher has provided more character details for the protagonist of The Killer, played by Michael Fassbender.

The movie is based on the French graphic novel of the same and tells the story of an assassin who becomes the subject of a manhunt after an attempted hit goes wrong.

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The official premise reads:

'After a fateful near miss, an assassin battles his employers, and himself, on an international manhunt he insists isn't personal.'

Though James Bond and The Killer (unnamed in the movie) share similarities in that they are both assassins, they are extremely different personalities, according to Fincher.

“He’s not James Bond,” Fincher tells Empire.

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“Our guy flies coach.

“I thought the character’s nihilism was interesting because it was tied to his self-loathing. Then I started thinking about this inner monologue. He has this whole thing he tells himself, which is a way of demeaning his prey so he can feel better about ostensibly being a serial killer for hire. I thought that could be interesting to navigate.”

The Killer cast: Michael Fassbender,  Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell, Kerry O'Malley, Sala Baker, Sophie Charlotte, and Tilda Swinton.

An American film adaptation of the graphic novel has been in development for years, as Fincher was first attached to the project back in 2007. He would move on to other projects before eventually taking his plans to Netflix in 2021.

It was released in competition at the Venice Film Festival in September and will receive a limited theatrical release in cinemas in October. It will officially become available for streaming on Netflix on 10 November 2023.

Throughout the trailer itself, we hear a voiceover from Fassbender which continually repeats phrases like "trust no one" and "empathy is weakness. Weakness is vulnerability."

As this is just a teaser, there isn't a lot to pick apart just yet, but it looks very exciting indeed, especially with the expert soundtrack from Fincher's regular collaborator, Trent Reznor.

The Killer trailer