There aren’t many action franchises that can say they’ve been around for more than 30 years. Somehow, Sniper is still going strong. What started with Tom Berenger and Billy Zane in the jungles of Panama back in 1993 has grown into a twelve-film franchise. Take that, Fast and the Furious!
Chad Michael Collins first joined the series with 2011’s Sniper: Reloaded, playing Berenger’s estranged son, Brandon Beckett. The film also gave him the chance to work with original Sniper star Billy Zane, who returned as Richard Miller. A few years later, Collins finally shared the screen with his fictional father when Berenger returned for Sniper: Legacy. He later worked with both original stars in Sniper: Ultimate Kill. It marked the first time Berenger and Zane had appeared together in the franchise since the 1993 original.
I recently had the chance to talk with Collins about that history and the latest chapter, Sniper: No Nation. We discussed how he joined the franchise and what it was like stepping into an established series. He also talked about eventually working alongside the actors who started the whole thing. We also discussed something few people involved with that first movie could have predicted. Sniper has found an entirely new audience decades later thanks to streaming.
And that audience is clearly still there. After arriving on Netflix this summer, Sniper: No Nation quickly climbed the charts. Collins noted that the film debuted as the #2 movie in the U.S. It also spent eight days in Netflix’s U.S. Top 10. The movie also found plenty of success outside the States No Nation entered Netflix’s global Top 10 at #10 with 3.2 million views before jumping to #3 the following week with 5.3 million views.
That’s pretty impressive for a franchise that began in 1993 and spent much of its life in the direct-to-video world. The original Sniper was hardly a blockbuster, but the series kept going and eventually became something very different from where it started.
More than three decades later, Brandon Beckett has become the face of the franchise. But Berenger’s Thomas Beckett remains an important part of the franchise’s DNA. No Nation brings father and son together once again, along with Ryan Robbins’ Agent Zero, for an off-the-books rescue mission after the G.R.I.T. team is disavowed and branded as terrorists.
And this story isn’t over. Sniper: No Nation was designed as the first half of a two-part story, and Collins confirmed that Sniper: No Nation Part 2 is on the way, although an official release date has yet to be announced.
Check out my full interview with Chad Michael Collins above as we dig into his long history with the Sniper franchise, working with Tom Berenger and Billy Zane, the series’ unexpected longevity, its new life on Netflix, and what’s coming next for Brandon Beckett.
Sniper: No Nation is now available on Digital, DVD and Netflix.
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