Juror #2 is supposedly Clint Eastwood’s final film. And after more than six decades in the industry and 40 films under his belt as director, the 94-year-old Hollywood icon has more than earned his retirement. But you’d expect a filmmaker as renowned as Eastwood to get a more celebratory rollout than what Juror #2 is receiving. The official website for Juror #2 has the film listed to play in a measly 18 markets in North America. (Update: Warner Bros. has stated to Inverse that Juror #2 is “releasing in the U.S., U.K., France, Spain, Italy and Germany with the full support of Warner Bros.”) There was barely a press tour, despite the film’s star-studded cast, including Nicholas Hoult, J.K. Simmons, and Toni Collette. As of this writing, Warner Bros. Discovery didn’t even try to opt for the awards push, giving the film an early premiere at the AFI Fest... five days before its release. What gives?
For this kind of hush-hush release, you’d expect the movie to be mediocre or disappointing in some way. And sure, Eastwood’s last few films have fallen short of expectations — Cry Macho, Richard Jewell, The Mule, and almost all of his films for the past decade were mostly fine to boring — but that’s not the case at all for Juror #2.
