Five women secret agents are ready to save the world in the upcoming spy action film The 355, with Lupita Nyong’o and Penélope Cruz co-starring in the Universal Pictures movie premiering Jan. 7.

Mexican-born Nyong’o and Spanish Cruz play a former MI6 agent Khadijah and skilled Colombian psychologist Graciela, who join forces with two other American and German agents to keep a top-secret weapon to fall into mercenary hands. Jessica Chastain plays wild card CIA operative Mason “Mace” Brown, and her rival badass German agent Marie is portrayed by Diane Kruger. Chinese actress Fan Bingbing joins the cast as Lin Mi Sheng, a mysterious Ministry of State Security agent tracking the female spy team’s moves throughout the world.

That makes for a world-caliber ensemble cast. Nyong’o and Cruz are Oscar winners and Chastain has been nominated twice for the golden Academy Award. Kruger is a Cannes victor and Bingning is a recipient of the Hundred Flowers Awards, considered China’s equivalent of the Golden Globes.

“Work together or die alone,” read Nyong’o Instagram post, echoing the tagline of the movie in which she plays a cutting-edge computer specialist. 

For her part, Cruz shared a poster of the film featuring her individually with three stripes in the colors of the Colombian flag as a backdrop. She introduces the picture with the words, “We are #the355.”

The number “355” is reportedly a reference to the code name given to a female spy that helped the Patriots in the American Revolution against British colonial rule. In media interviews, Chastain has said that it is an honor for women agents working today to be referred to with that number code. The twice Oscar-nominated actress also serves as a producer in the film. A fan of the movie franchises Mission Impossible and The Bourne Identity, Chastain wanted to do a spy action with women. She brought together Cruz, Bingbing and Nyong’o to pitch the movie concept at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. The move paid off and there is talk the action feature could turn into a franchise.

Also co-starring in The 355 Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramirez and Buenos Aires-born Emilio Insolera, both of whom have coincidentally had spy roles in films before. Ramirez played CIA assassin Paz in The Bourne Identity, opposite Matt Damon. Insolera is a newcomer who previously played a deaf secret agent with special powers in Sign Gene: The First Deaf Superheroes, a 2017 independent superhero film that he wrote, produced, directed and starred in. 

Filmed in international locations that include London, Morocco, Paris and Shanghai, the female spy feature is directed by Simon Kinberg, who made his directorial debut with the superhero flick X-Men: Dark Phoenix in 2019. Also credited as a producer in The 355, Kinberg has a long list of production credits in action features like Fantastic Four, Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse and Logan.

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