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)
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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."



‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Soars toward a $100 Million Holiday Weekend

 Julius Onah, from left, Anthony Mackie, and Danny Ramirez attend the special screening of "Captain America: Brave New World" on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in New York. (AP)
Julius Onah, from left, Anthony Mackie, and Danny Ramirez attend the special screening of "Captain America: Brave New World" on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in New York. (AP)
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‘Captain America: Brave New World’ Soars toward a $100 Million Holiday Weekend

 Julius Onah, from left, Anthony Mackie, and Danny Ramirez attend the special screening of "Captain America: Brave New World" on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in New York. (AP)
Julius Onah, from left, Anthony Mackie, and Danny Ramirez attend the special screening of "Captain America: Brave New World" on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in New York. (AP)

“Captain America: Brave New World” infused some blockbuster cash into the North American box office, bringing in $88.5 million in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Walt Disney Co. release is by far the biggest opener of 2025 and the company predicts it will hit $100 million domestically and $192.4 globally by the end of Monday's Presidents' Day holiday.

It’s Marvel's first major release since “Deadpool & Wolverine” broke records last summer and re-energized a Marvel fanbase that some worried was weakening after the poor showing for “The Marvels.” Playing in 4,105 locations in the US and Canada, “Brave New World” is also a major transition for the “Captain America” brand: Anointing Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson as the new Cap, officially taking over from Chris Evans, who played the character for almost a decade. Harrison Ford co-stars as the US President who transforms into the Red Hulk.

But “Brave New World,” directed by Julius Onah, had a bit of a handicap going into the weekend: Poor reviews, though superhero movies can soar without the stamp of approval from critics. The film is currently sitting at 51% “rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes. It's not the worst in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — “Eternals” has a 47% rating and “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania” has a 46% — but the latest film is definitely on the very low end of the spectrum.

In his review for The Associated Press, Mark Kennedy wrote that it is, “a highly processed, empty calorie, regret-later candy of a movie.”

Audiences were more generous in their opinions. The “verified audience score” from Rotten Tomatoes was 80% and its CinemaScore was a B-. Exit polls showed that men made up 63% of the opening weekend audience.

The bar for biggest opening of the year wasn’t terribly high: “Dog Man” held the title for two weeks with its $36 million launch.

And “Brave New World's” showing is the middle range for an MCU film. Not accounting for inflation, it sits between “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Thor: The Dark World.”

It also cost significantly less than many of the big budget Marvel movies, with a reported production price tag of $180 million, excluding the millions spent on marketing and promotion.

After only one Marvel movie in 2024, “Brave New World” is the first of three major theatrical releases set for 2025, followed by “Thunderbolts(asterisk)” in May and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” in July.

Second place at this week's box office went to “Paddington in Peru,” the third installment in the beloved franchise, which finally opened in North America this weekend. Released by Sony, it earned an estimated $13 million. The StudioCanal film opened in the United Kingdom in early November 2024 and went into the weekend with $104 million from its international run.

Dougal Wilson took over directing duties for Paul King for this film, which also recast Emily Mortimer as Mrs. Brown, originally played by Sally Hawkins. The other main cast, including Ben Whishaw as Paddington's voice, remained intact.

Sony and Screen Gems' slasher “Heart Eyes” landed in third place with $10 million, up 20% from its opening last weekend. Fourth place went to “Dog Man" with $9.7 million.

This weekend also saw the release of a new “Bridget Jones" movie, subtitled “Mad About the Boy,” which went straight to Universal’s streaming service Peacock, forgoing theaters in the US. In the UK and Ireland it made an estimated $14.9 million, outgrossing “Captain America: Brave New World.” Universal Pictures International reported $32.3 million in grosses from all 70 territories.