The Israeli actor already played a superhero in Wonder Woman. For Heart of Stone, Gadot wanted to bring herself back down to Earth. “It was really important to me that Rachel be a character who can fight, but I also wanted her to be able to use her brain, intuition and emotions,” she told Netflix in June. “She doesn’t just run in, guns blazing. She thinks about how she is affecting people and situations.”

For director Tom Harper, that more thoughtful quality distinguishes Stone from your Bonds or Bournes. “There is a deep care and compassion for people as the driving force of her actions,” Harper said last month. “It often feels that there's one character acting in an almost God-like way, saving the world but yet disregarding the humans around them. This is a bit different, it has a bit more of a humanistic approach.”

Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman 1984, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, Death on the Nile, Date Night

Dornan plays Parker, the leader of Stone’s MI6 team. A skilled agent in his own right, at first Parker chuckles at the seemingly unprepared Stone. Soon, of course, she manages to earn his respect. “He has an idealistic way of how the world should be, but not in the way an audience might originally think,” Dornan told Netflix in June.

Of course, behind the scenes, Gadot herself had no trouble earning Dornan’s respect. “She’s like a rock star, and holds these movies together so well with so much elegance and strength,” Dornan said. It’s tough to resist a real life action hero.

Belfast, Barb & Star Go to Vista del Mar, Fifty Shades of Grey, A Private War, Robin Hood, Once Upon a Time, The Fall

Bollywood superstar Bhatt takes on her first English-language role as Keya Dhawan, a mysterious hacker who’s out to steal the “Heart,” the Charter’s state-of-the-art artificial intelligence. “If you own the heart, you own the world. And clearly she's here to disrupt a couple of things,” Bhatt told Tudum in June. 

For Bhatt the film was an opportunity to step out of her comfort zone, but she was surprised at how close her experience was to her previous work in Hindi blockbusters like Raazi. “Genuinely there’s nothing different in terms of the work ethic, the involvement in the work, and the idea that this whole massive team has to come together to make this movie and live up to one vision,” Bhatt said. “For me it’s totally similar and in that sense feels extremely comfortable because it’s just like home.”

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Schweighöfer’s “Jack of Hearts” is the Charter’s tech specialist, a genius who works closely with the artificial intelligence at the center of their operations. “I had known Matthias from Army of Thieves, and he’s just so vibrant,” Harper said in June. “He’s got enough energy and humor to keep a film crew happy and laughing for months!”

To prepare for operating the Heart’s digital interface, Schweighöfer worked with a movement coach who helped design the way he would interact with the device. “We tried to create a language for how to use the Heart, breaking it down into small parts, like a dictionary,” said Schweighöfer earlier this year. “How to scroll forward and backward, highlight, go back in time, open a new screen — getting it to the point that it looked like I could actually operate it.”

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Okonedo, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Hotel Rwanda, plays Nomad (Charter codename: “King of Hearts”). Her previous work with Harper — Okonedo appeared in Harper’s 2018 film Wild Rose — made him eager to work with her again. 

“Not only is she one of the fiercest and most brilliant actresses, but she also has the perfect demeanor to play Nomad,” Harper told Netflix in June. “There’s such a depth to her performance. She can be light one moment, and then in the blink of an eye she can turn steely. That contrast — when you slip between thinking she’s having a nice conversation to ‘I’m going to kill you’ — is a really wonderful thing to play with.”

Hotel Rwanda, The Secret Life of Bees, Æon Flux, Wild Rose, Catherine Called Birdy, Death on the Nile

Ready plays Max, an MI6 driver and comms operative who supports his team in the field. Rachel’s closest friend on her new squad, he’s a good-natured conspiracy theorist with a heart of gold. 

The Death of Stalin, The Terror, MotherFatherSon, Motherland, Utopia, The Tunnel

Theresa Yang, played by Jing Lusi, is the MI6 team’s designated sharpshooter. She’s a team player with deadly skills and a cool, composed attitude. 

Crazy Rich Asians, Gangs of London, Lucky Man, The Feed, Jade Armor