Ray Donovan Movie - What We Know So Far
"Ray Donovan" is a show about a family man who is very good at his job. For better or worse, his job is to "fix" problems for his rich, powerful, celebrity clients who have done (or who are planning to do) bad things. He arranges bribes for them, he cleans up their messes, and he does this all while juggling a rocky marriage, caring for his children and siblings, and trying his best to keep his father/nemesis from ruining his life.
The show was such a hit for Showtime that everyone involved with the production felt "blindsided" once they heard of its abrupt cancellation in February 2020 (as reported by Deadline). Fans were also up in arms about the cancellation — and understandably so, since the seventh and final season ended on a dramatic cliffhanger. But showrunner David Hollander and lead actor Liev Schreiber did not take the news lying down. They rallied their fans on social media to advocate that Showtime give them at least one more season. They wanted closure, and the social media push from fans eventually made the network change its mind...sort of.
Showtime compromised and agreed to give fans, the cast, and the crew a two-hour feature film instead of a full season (in the same vein as "Sense8" or "Firefly"). Happy with this compromise, everyone has been working hard behind the scenes to make the "Ray Donovan" movie the best send-off a prematurely canceled show could ask for. So here's the scoop on the release date, cast, and plot of the "Ray Donovan" movie.
When is the Ray Donovan movie release date?
Unfortunately, there's no specific release date for the "Ray Donovan" movie yet. And it's a little bit difficult to speculate on the exact date that fans should plan on. For one, production and release dates for the episodes themselves were sporadic during later seasons of the show. Secondly, COVID-19 still hasn't been completely eliminated yet — which may affect production times, especially with news of Delta variants spreading across the U.S. (according to The Atlantic).
However, if this under-construction IMDb page is to be believed, fans will be getting their closure sooner rather than later. If you look closely, you can see that the page states that the movie is "in production" and is expected to have a 2022 release date, though when in 2022 is hard to say. Early or mid-July would be a comfortable prediction seeing as how the first several seasons of the show premiered like clockwork during that time frame. Then again, if the network is working hard to produce the movie and get it out as soon as possible, fans could get it even earlier than that. There's no way to know for sure right now.
Who will be in the cast of the Ray Donovan movie?
Five of the confirmed cast members so far have been identified in a recent Instagram post from Liev Schreiber himself. The photo shows a semicircle with stars (from left to right) Kerris Dorsey, Schreiber, Dash Mihok, Pooch Hall, and Eddie Marsan. The caption reads, "I will miss this particular gaggle of actors very very much." The post is less than a week old as of this writing and has over 60,000 likes.
Entertainment Weekly also reports that Jon Voight will be a part of the final movie and, according to the movie's IMDb page, AJ Michalka will be coming on to play Young Abbey in flashbacks of her and Ray's relationship. When comparing the show's IMDb page to that of the movie, they seem to be the only cast members to overlap (minus Michalka as young Abby, of course). It does not appear as though big stars like Susan Sarandon or Katherine Moennig will be reprising their former roles for the movie.
The plot of the Ray Donovan movie might surprise fans
Touching back on that Entertainment Weekly article, the official synopsis for the movie notes that "the film picks up where Season 7 left off, with Mickey in the wind and Ray determined to find and stop him before he can cause any more carnage. It will also weave together the present-day fallout from the Donovan/Sullivan feud with Ray and Mickey's origin story from 30 years ago." Hollander also teased fans during an interview with Vulture that all the unanswered questions that left fans agape at the end of Season 7 will be answered "in honest, and also, I believe, in very surprising ways."
There's no doubt that the Season 7 cliffhanger has left a lot of fans with unanswered questions. TV Line gathered up the 10 most burning questions that fans have, such as "Is Smitty really dead?," "Will Darryl turn himself in?," and "Will Dr. Amiot disclose to Ray that he's also treating his brother Terry?" Based on what Hollander said in previous interviews, it's likely that fans of the show will finally get answers to these mysteries and more. But none of us will know for sure until the movie is released in 2022.