The Josh Hartnett Renaissance Is Finally Here

In Trap, the latest thriller from M. Night Shyamalan, a sweet girl dad named Cooper takes his daughter to a concert as a reward for good grades. He seems like a charming enough dude, and then it’s revealed that the entire event is a ruse to capture a notorious serial killer known as the Butcher. Cooper, of course, is the Butcher, and he must find a way to evade the barrage of FBI agents waiting to ensnare him.

It's the perfect role for Josh Hartnett, whose easy-going leading man charm soon gives way to reveal a calculating sociopath who can only perform at being a human as he watches over his victims from afar. Haven’t we missed seeing Hartnett on-screen?

As the iconic ’80s power ballad once declared, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. There are actors whose specific talents and appeal are hard to replace, or trigger such a nostalgic thrill in our hearts that we suddenly find ourselves yearning for something we didn’t know we missed. Not that Josh Hartnett ever truly went away, of course, but as we find ourselves in the midst of his renaissance, it’s been a delightful reminder of why we loved him so much in the first place.

Many have declared that we’re now in the Hartnett-sance (Hartnaissance? Hartnettaissance?) and it’s not tough to see why. Last year, he was one of thousands of beloved white dude actors in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, with Collider naming it a standout performance in a movie stacked with them. He headlined one of the best episodes of the recent season of Black Mirror, then popped up for one episode of The Bear and charmed everyone, including Richie, despite playing his ex-wife's new fiancée. There’s even a podcast dedicated to exploring his entire filmography.

We’re a sucker for a good comeback story, whether it’s Matthew McConaughey reinventing himself from a smarmy rom-com hero to an auteur’s favorite or Brendan Fraser’s evolution from ‘90s himbo leading man to heart-wrenching character actor. Hartnett hasn’t undergone so radical a change, however, nor did he exit our screens for years at a time. If you knew where to look Josh was always doing what he did, so reliably and comfortingly that we took it for granted.

Maybe his “return” feels huge because there was a period in the late ’90s and early 2000s where it was a given that Hartnett would become an undisputed megastar.

He was a teen idol and heartthrob whose pretty face lined the walls of many a teenage girl, thanks to films like The Faculty and O. This was a guy so charming that he could model the most wretched DIY bangs ever committed to cinema and still have us swooning. Michael Bay chose him as the co-male lead for Pearl Harbor, a movie that was meant to be the next Titanic (spoiler: it was not.) It was rumored that he was approached several times to play both Batman and Superman, but said no. He was part of that generation of hot young leading stars who could do it all—rom-coms, horror, drama, blockbuster—and who were going to usher Hollywood into the 2000s.

And he... kind of did, but not really. His filmography is far quirkier than it gets credit for. He played a killer in Sin City, headlined a Brian de Palma murder mystery, and co-starred in the delightful but underseen Japanese dramedy Oh Lucy! For three years, he headlined the Showtime gothic horror Penny Dreadful, bringing a retro leading man stoicism to a show full of horny monsters and Victorian intrigue.

He always possessed an inner darkness that punctured the pristine hunk image. In The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola’s melancholy teen drama, Hartnett plays Trip Fontaine, the dream high school hottie who seduces Kirsten Dunst’s rebellious but sheltered Lux Lisbon. It’s the perfect use of his youthful heartthrob image, which quickly curdles as Hartnett reveals the consequences of his bratty lothario ways. It’s easy to imagine Trip Fontaine evolving into Cooper in Trap. Throughout the ensuing two decades, Hartnett never stopped working. He just became more of a supporting player and reliable mainstay than a box office record breaker.

Being a hot leading man can be boring. It’s limiting on your talents and your shelf life is short. Either you become an invincible Tom Cruise type flinging yourself off buildings or you wait until your face is rugged enough to qualify you for character actor roles. Hartnett has earned a few wrinkles but is still very hot, and he’s found good ways to balance style and substance. Mostly, it’s helped him to move into the background, but not be ignored by the camera.

In Oppenheimer, where he plays scientist Ernest Lawrence, there's a gentleness to him that belies his 6 foot, 2 inches height, an obvious empathy which sets him apart from the data-driven myopia of J. Robert Oppenheimer himself. He exudes authority without doing or saying much at all, and it’s striking to watch. Straightforward leading men seldom get to do something that interesting.

Hartnett has been a megastar and he didn’t enjoy the experience. He became the target of overzealous fans and stalkers, which changed his approach to his career, pulling away from the spotlight and living a normal life in London with his wife, actress Tamsin Egerton, and their four children. He told Men's Health that he’s always been “annoyed by people that play the numbers and game the system and just do the safe thing.” He probably could have gone on to be a floppier haired Ben Affleck if he’d played said game, but the results may have been less intriguing.

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We’re in a moment in pop culture where we’re desperate for more leading men but are also hopelessly nostalgic for the late ’90s and early 2000s era of hunk. It’s why Glen Powell’s ruthless ambition is paying off so handsomely this year, and you could easily imagine Hartnett headlining Twisters or playing half-naked volleyball with Tom Cruise in a Top Gun sequel.

That’s why we’ve been so excited by the Hartnett renaissance, even if the descriptor isn’t accurate. But is that really what we want from him? We missed Hartnett because he was way more interesting than all of that, even when he didn’t have to be. It’s satisfying to see our teen hunk evolve into a well-adjusted dude who’s good at his job and surprises us with his versatility. Now we’re fully appreciating him for the first time in forever, we don’t want him to go away.