Cillian Murphy’s Forgotten WWII Movie Is Officially Leaving Paramount+ Very Soon
Cillian Murphy's 2016 war thriller Anthropoid, in which he played a Czech soldier involved in the real-life assassination of a senior Nazi official, is set to leave Paramount+ in the United States soon, according to Collider. The film is one of two Second World War dramas exiting the streaming service shortly, the other being Daniel Craig's Defiance, in which he portrayed one of four Belarusian brothers who rescued Jews during the war.
Anthropoid was directed by Sean Ellis and co-starred Jamie Dornan; it depicted the operation to kill Reinhard Heydrich, a story also told in the 2017 film The Man with the Iron Heart, starring Jack O'Connell and Jack Reynor. The article also notes that Murphy and Craig are currently reuniting for a new prison drama directed by Damien Chazelle, marking the Oscar-winning director's first feature since 2022's Babylon, and observes that both actors previously followed major career milestones with Netflix projects.
- Cillian Murphy's Anthropoid is leaving Paramount+ in the US soon
- Daniel Craig's Defiance is also departing the platform
- Murphy and Craig are reuniting for a new Damien Chazelle prison drama
New here? Start with this
Anthropoid tells the true story of Operation Anthropic, a Second World War mission by Czechoslovak resistance fighters trained in Britain to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, a senior Nazi official overseeing occupied Czechoslovakia. The 2016 film starred Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan as two of the men who carried out the operation, and was directed by Sean Ellis. Murphy has since become far better known through roles including Peaky Blinders and his Oscar-winning turn in Oppenheimer.
The film is available on Paramount+ alongside Defiance, a 2008 drama starring Daniel Craig about Belarusian Jewish brothers who saved fellow Jews from the Nazis by sheltering them in forest hideouts. Streaming platforms regularly remove licensed titles once distribution agreements expire, which is why films can disappear from a service with little warning even years after release.
Murphy and Craig are notable beyond these individual films as two of Britain's more prominent leading actors, both associated with major franchises (Peaky Blinders and James Bond respectively) as well as serious dramatic work. Their WWII films are being highlighted together partly because the two actors are currently working on a new project together, giving added interest to their earlier, less widely remembered work.