Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o lead team of female spies in ‘The 355’ trailer

The 355
(Image credit: Universal Pictures)

Put Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz and Diane Kruger in a movie together and most film fans would be quite intrigued. Make them the stars of an action-thriller, with Bingbing Fan as well, and it becomes all the more tantalizing. That’s what we’re getting with The 355, which just released a new trailer this week.

If your first thought (besides damn, that’s a good cast) is “what does the 355 mean,” here’s a quick history lesson. As the trailer alludes to, 355 is in reference to the code name for one of the spies for the U.S. army during the Revolutionary War. While the real identity of agent 355 is unknown, we do know that she was a woman. So these modern day spies are honoring her legacy by naming their team after her.

As for what you can expect from the film itself, The 355 begins when a top-secret weapon falls into the wrong hands. A CIA agent joins forces with other international agents with the goal of retrieving it. The screenplay was written by Theresa Rebeck and Simon Kinberg, with Kinberg also serving as the director.

Joining Chastain, Nyong’o, Kruger, Cruz and Fan is the Winter Soldier himself, Sebastian Stan, as well as Edgar Ramirez, Jason Wong and Leo Staar.

The trailer looks like all the stars having something fun to bring to the table — Chastain as the leader, Nyong’o as the tech genius, Kruger the weapons expert, Fan mastering hand-to-hand combat and Cruz as the reluctant but brilliant psychologist. Get a glimpse of all of them in action with the trailer below.

The 355 has been in the plans for a while, though like many other movies it was put on hold over the last year-and-a-half. It will finally be released in the new year, Jan. 7 to be exact. The film is expected to play only in theaters as studios are moving away from the day-and-date streaming releases forced by the pandemic. 

Michael Balderston

Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca, Moulin Rouge!, Silence of the Lambs, Children of Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars. On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd.