James Spader Bids Farewell to an Intriguing Criminal Mastermind as ‘the Blacklist’ Finale Approaches

 This image released by NBC shows James Spader as Raymond Reddington in a scene from "The Blacklist." The 2-hour series finale airs July 13. (NBC/ Sony Pictures Television via AP)
This image released by NBC shows James Spader as Raymond Reddington in a scene from "The Blacklist." The 2-hour series finale airs July 13. (NBC/ Sony Pictures Television via AP)
TT
20

James Spader Bids Farewell to an Intriguing Criminal Mastermind as ‘the Blacklist’ Finale Approaches

 This image released by NBC shows James Spader as Raymond Reddington in a scene from "The Blacklist." The 2-hour series finale airs July 13. (NBC/ Sony Pictures Television via AP)
This image released by NBC shows James Spader as Raymond Reddington in a scene from "The Blacklist." The 2-hour series finale airs July 13. (NBC/ Sony Pictures Television via AP)

Raymond "Red" Reddington is finally hanging up his famous black fedora and — fitting for a manipulative genius — he's doing it on his own terms.

"The Blacklist" ends its 10-year NBC run Thursday with a two-hour send-off, and star James Spader says the cast and crew relished the chance to take their time saying goodbye.

"I was very, very glad we were able to end it exactly the way we wanted to end it. It was deliberate and we weren’t taken by surprise in terms of when the ending was going to come," he tells The Associated Press. "You’ll see that the ending has conviction and we commit to it."

The end of "The Blacklist" is a swan song for Reddington, one of the most intriguing and delicious characters on television. A master of brokering shadowy deals for criminals, he offered his help to the FBI tracking down the world’s most dangerous criminals.

Spader reveals that the show — filmed mostly in New York City with an embrace of international characters — went overseas for the finale. "The Blacklist" ends in Spain.

"I really felt like this was complete and I loved how it really completed a circle, in a way," he says. "It wasn’t just an unbroken line from point A to point Z, but it was a circle of sorts."

The show attracted Spader all those years ago because he was looking for something that would sustain both his interest and the viewer's for more than 20 episodes a season, or in his words, create a "limitless landscape."

The pilot introduced Reddington as a fugitive criminal whose enterprises were worldwide, checking one box for the actor. Spader was also looking for a show that was fluid in tone, which the pilot also delivered.

"I would not be as curious about a show that was either just a drama or a show that was just a comedy," he says. "I felt that it was sort of nice that this show was very, very intense and brutal at times and then, at other times, very irreverent and sometimes very emotional."

Reddington, infused with Spader's elliptical charm, was a stylish addition to network TV, a character who could make an amazing frittata with just a toaster oven and who collected sabers from the Crimean War. He was not good, certainly, but not bad, either. "He’s a scary monster and people like him," Spader says.

Reddington is deeply cultured, a man able to converse about Cary Grant, the Piazza del Campo in Siena or Kai Tak Airport. Nicknamed "The Concierge of Crime," he said deeply profound things like, "Not every answer is worth knowing" and "I can only lead you to the truth. I can’t make you believe it."

"He inhabits the whole world, he really does. He lives in it and he really loves it. And he loves life," says Spader, a three-time Emmy winner. "I guess one would understand the value of life if one has to take it every so often."

Even when laying low, Reddington shone. In the fifth season, he was reduced to living in a motor lodge, hanging poolside wearing a baseball cap, but rose again. Reddington was fearless.

"He’s someone who would show reason and caution but he was never fearful of anything. That sort of combination, I think, is compelling for people when faced with so much in one’s life and the world around you," Spader says.

"I think there’s something compelling, I guess, in losing yourself in a story, going on a ride along with someone, not fearful of whatever might be around the next corner or what might be across that threshold that you’re just about to cross."

Another thing that sustained "The Blacklist" was its marriage between a weekly procedural needing an end and an overarching, serialized story that started with the pilot and never paused until the finale.

"People could enter the show or sort of access it at any time, and there would be a certain amount of satisfaction in that," says Spader. "And yet for those people who wanted to stay with it, then it was satisfying as a long and circuitous journey."

Ten years ago, Spader's Reddington promised the FBI access to his lengthy roster of politicians, mobsters, hackers, spies — "the criminals who matter," he taunted agents in the pilot, "the ones you can’t find because you don’t even know they exist."

A decade later it was Spader during the Hollywood writers' strike who helped get the finale onto screens. He turned out to be the only executive producer able to help get the last two episodes out.

Spader said Reddington is a welcome addition to his off-kilter gallery of TV characters, which includes Alan Shore on "Boston Legal" and Robert California from "The Office."

"He sits very comfortably with all the others. He’s got his own place at the table," the actor says. "It feels complete and sometimes you’re not done with someone that you’ve played. I don’t harbor any regret."



With the Box Office Down, James Gunn Predicts Summer of ‘Superman’ to the Rescue 

Actor David Corenswet, promoting the movie "Superman", poses during a Warner Bros presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
Actor David Corenswet, promoting the movie "Superman", poses during a Warner Bros presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20

With the Box Office Down, James Gunn Predicts Summer of ‘Superman’ to the Rescue 

Actor David Corenswet, promoting the movie "Superman", poses during a Warner Bros presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)
Actor David Corenswet, promoting the movie "Superman", poses during a Warner Bros presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 1, 2025. (Reuters)

The 2025 box office has been hit with a deficit. Can the James Gunn-dubbed “summer of ‘Superman’” save it?

Warner Bros. showed off a diverse and starry slate of its upcoming films on Tuesday — but the night was carried on the shoulders of Clark Kent.

“I really do believe in this movie. And I do believe that there is a lack of human kindness, or at least a degradation of human kindness,” Gunn said. “This is a movie that celebrates kindness and human love.”

At the annual CinemaCon convention and trade show in Las Vegas, Gunn — the director and writer of the first film in the new iteration of the connected DC Universe — also brought out its stars, who gushed over their experience making the film.

“It’s a great honor to play a role that exists so clearly in the public consciousness, to the point where everyone I think, even if you haven’t seen a film or read a comic, you sort of know what the Superman symbol means and you know what it stands for,” said David Corenswet, adding that he hopes to “illuminate something new about the character, or even just bring the beloved character to a new audience.”

Corenswet was joined onstage by Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult, who plays Lex Luther.

“James makes a family out of every set,” Brosnahan said. “The set is full of people who want to be there, who love making these movies. And it’s such a joy to come to work every day. As many of you have probably heard from other people, it’s not always like that.”

Gunn was announced to direct the film in 2023 shortly after he and Peter Safran became co-chairmen and co-CEOs of DC Studios.

“We appreciate and share your passion for this art form,” Safran told a room full of theater owners. “It’s the fulcrum of our ambitious DC Studios slate and it’s what inspired James to shoot all over the world and push filmmaking technology to its limits, to propel moviegoers out of their homes into your theaters.”

The film will be released theatrically in July amid a summer of superhero titles, including “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and “Thunderbolts(asterisk).”

In addition to “Superman,” Warner Bros. teased some of its April releases on the convention’s main stage, like Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” and “A Minecraft Movie,” but they also looked further down the road for 2025.

In a nod to cinephiles, the studio kicked off its presentation by bringing out the stars of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” including Leonardo DiCaprio and Regina Hall. The film is set to hit theaters in September.

“I’ve been wanting to work with Paul for over, gosh, almost 20 years now. He’s one of the most unique talents of our time,” DiCaprio said. “With this film, he’s tapped into something politically and culturally that is brewing beneath our psyche. But at the same time, it’s an incredibly epic movie and has such scope and scale.”

Director Joseph Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer also treated the audience to an extended sneak peak of “F1,” Brad Pitt’s Formula One racing drama premiering in June.

In addition to Hollywood studios and stars boasting their theatrical menus which they believe will lure audiences to cinemas, the annual convention is also a time to discuss current industry debates, like how long movies should stay in theaters and the extent to which studios should get into production with streaming companies.