Summary

• Hartnett made a big comeback in 2023 after a hiatus, landing roles in high-profile projects like Black Mirror and Oppenheimer.
• His return was sparked by Guy Ritchie needing a last-minute replacement, leading to a year full of acclaimed performances.
• Hartnett's future looks promising with lead roles in M. Night Shyamalan's thriller Trap and James Franco's indie drama The Long Road.

With his well-received and celebrated comeback in 2023, many people were wondering what happened to Josh Hartnett and what took him so long to return to the Hollywood fold. Seen as one of the most promising young movie stars in the early 2000s, Hartnett walked away from his remarkable potential appearing in smaller and little-seen projects over the last decade which was a big departure from his high-profile early work. While Hartnett has kept his finger on the pulse and maintained relevancy in the acting world, 2023 brings him back to the spotlight in a major and nostalgic way.

Hartnett rose to fame as the son of Jamie Lee Curtis's Laurie Strode in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later in 1998. Hartnett became a Hollywood heartthrob from his performance as Trip Fontaine in The Virgin Suicides before appearing in blockbusters Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down. Hartnett's fast-paced acting career came to a halt in the mid-2000s after starring in Lucky Number Slevin with Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis, raising the question of what exactly happened to cease his seemingly unstoppable momentum. However, with roles in films like Oppenheimer, Harnett has returned in a big way.

Josh Hartnett Hasn't Worked On Major Movies & Shows Since Penny Dreadful

Guy Ritchie Helped Kickstart His Comeback

Hartnett's last major role was as Ethan Chandler in the Showtime series Penny Dreadful, in which he appeared in 27 episodes from 2014 to 2016. Since then, Hartnett's career has remained relatively quiet, with his first mainstream appearance in 14 years being in Guy Ritchie's 2021 heist thriller Wrath of Man. Hartnett himself has acknowledged that he has burned many bridges with major studios as a result of his withdrawal from Hollywood, which he justifies by wanting to have a simpler, relatively normal life in Surrey, England.

He had never intentionally planned to quit acting and took on roles in smaller productions during his unofficial hiatus.

Hartnett returned for Ritchie's 2021 thriller only because of a last-minute casting dropout. Ritchie reached out to Hartnett in desperation since he lived close to the filming location of Wrath of Man. This seemingly random return to Hollywood sparked a comeback year in 2023 for the once sought-after actor when he appeared in Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and Oppenheimer. Hartnett understandably wanted to seek time out of the limelight in order to focus on his family life. He had never intentionally planned to quit acting and took on roles in smaller productions during his unofficial hiatus.

Why 2023 Was A Big Year For Josh Hartnett

Hartnett's Black Mirror And Oppenheimer Role Reminded Hollywood Of His Talents

Along with reteaming with Guy Ritchie in Operation Fortune and appearing in Kevin Hart's comedy Die Hart, 2023 serves as a comeback for Hartnett with two high-profile and acclaimed performances, Black Mirror season 6 and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer.

Hartnett plays a family man and astronaut named David in Black Mirror season 6, episode 3 "Beyond The Sea" alongside the phenomenal Aaron Paul and Kate Mara. His character in Black Mirror struggles with an unimaginable tragedy that he must cope with in the vast darkness of outer space. Hartnett successfully delivers a poignant and versatile performance as David, one that demonstrated why he was once such a prominent name in the industry.

Hartnett also appeared in the star-studded cast of Oppenheimer alongside Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., and Florence Pugh. Hartnett will play Ernest Lawrence, a Nobel Prize winner and American nuclear physicist who invented the cyclotron. Hartnett has certainly come a long way from originally being offered the part of Batman and Bruce Wayne in Nolan's Batman Begins, which would have certainly sealed his legacy as one of the biggest names in Hollywood in the 21st century. However, his return to the big screen in Nolan's Oppenheimer marked a major and somewhat poetic comeback for Josh Hartnett in 2023.

What The Future Holds For Josh Hartnett

The Actor Already Has Several More Appearances Lined Up

After working with renowned directors like Guy Ritchie and Christopher Nolan, Josh Hartnett's next appearance is in a movie helmed by an equally recognizable name — The Sixth Sense, Glass, and Signs director M. Night Shyamalan. Hartnett is taking the lead role in Shyamalan's upcoming thriller, Trap, which is due to release in 2024. While fans of the actor were certainly thriller to see Hartnett return in movies like Oppenheimer and Operation Fortune, his roles weren't the leading parts he'd had in earlier appearances like 2002's 40 Days and 40 Nights or 2006's Lucky Number Slevin - which is why Trap is especially noteworthy.

Josh Hartnett is playing the lead role in M. Night Shyamalan's Trap, marking his most prominent return to the screen since his unofficial hiatus. Hartnett's part in the thriller is that of Cooper, a serial killer known as The Butcher. The plot of the film is intriguing. It sees Hartnett's Cooper taking his daughter to a pop concert. However, when they arrive, he quickly realizes that the police are using the event as the perfect opportunity to catch him. From the trailers, Trap looks to be both another exhilarating return to form for the director and a welcome leading-role-comeback for Hartnett himself.

In addition to Trap, Josh Hartnett also has an unknown role in the upcoming James Franco-directed indie drama The Long Road, which is yet to receive a release date and is based on the 1999 novel by William Gay (with which it shares a title). Hartnett will be starring alongside Franco in the movie, and the cast also includes the likes of Tim Blake Nelson, Josh Hutcherson, Zoe Levin, Courtney Love, Giancarlo Esposito, and Ashton Kutcher, among others. With both The Long Road and Trap in his future, it looks like Josh Hartnett is on track to becoming a Hollywood A-Lister once again.