Even prior to the much-publicized incident at the Academy Awards that led to a decade-long ban, actor Will Smith was navigating a period of career uncertainty. Interestingly, his career appears to have shown more vitality post-Oscars controversy than in the years immediately preceding it. This earlier decade saw Smith star in several projects that met with varied success, including the critically and commercially disappointing After Earth, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, which was notably intended as a vehicle for his son, Jaden Smith. Other box-office underperformers included Concussion and Collateral Beauty. However, the decade concluded with the significant success of Disney's live-action adaptation of Aladdin in 2019.

That same year, Smith also starred in another science fiction film that initially underperformed but is now experiencing a notable resurgence in viewership on streaming platforms: Gemini Man. Directed by the Oscar-winning Ang Lee, this film was part of Lee's ongoing exploration into High Frame Rate (HFR) technology. Lee had previously experimented with HFR in his 2016 war drama, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, which garnered only $30 million worldwide against a reported $40 million budget and left many viewers disoriented. Gemini Man, with a significantly larger budget, also failed to become an immediate box-office hit, grossing around $175 million worldwide against a reported production budget of just under $140 million. It remains Ang Lee's last feature film directorial effort and was co-produced by prolific hit-maker Jerry Bruckheimer alongside new Paramount CEO David Ellison.

Gemini Man features Will Smith in a dual role as a sniper named Henry Brogen who finds himself targeted by a younger clone of himself, also portrayed by Smith. The film extensively utilized digital de-aging techniques to depict Smith in his 20s, a technology that was gaining traction in Hollywood at the time, seen in films like Captain America: Civil War and The Irishman. Despite its technological ambitions and visual spectacle, these gimmicks were not sufficient to draw large audiences to theaters during its initial release on October 11, 2019.

The film's critical reception was largely negative, holding a 27% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus on the aggregator website indicated that while Gemini Man boasted impressive visuals and strong performances, its