News of Bahrain
Lifestyle4 September 20262 min read

Branagh takes on action role in Apple’s Cold War comedy ‘Mayday’

By SK. AFP | Los Angeles Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com Kenneth Branagh, the British actor whose career has been built on weighty roles such as Shakespeare's Henry V, is perhaps an unlikely action hero. But in his new film "Mayday," whether he's wrestling soldiers for a gun on a crowded

Editorial Team Legacy

Published 4 September 2026, 8:00 · Updated 13:28

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Branagh takes on action role in Apple’s Cold War comedy ‘Mayday’

AFP | Los Angeles

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

Kenneth Branagh, the British actor whose career has been built on weighty roles such as Shakespeare’s Henry V, is perhaps an unlikely action hero.

But in his new film “Mayday,” whether he’s wrestling soldiers for a gun on a crowded train, smacking down bad guys in a bar fight or hijacking a missile-delivery vehicle on the streets of Moscow, he seems surprisingly at home.

Branagh stars as a disillusioned former KGB agent helping a downed US fighter pilot (Ryan Reynolds) to escape Cold War Russia in Apple TV+’s tongue-in-cheek road-movie romp.

For writer-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, Branagh’s comedic talents were never in doubt.

“We don’t ask dramatic actors to come in and be comedians. You know, it’s more we just want them to do what they do so well, which is embody the part. And he did that, and that’s what made it so funny,” Goldstein said.

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