Jason Statham is officially returning for a sequel to the 2024 action hit The Beekeeper.
According to Deadline, horror-action filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto will helm the sequel, taking over from David Ayer as director.
Statham is returning to the action with Tjahjanto on board to direct the film from a screenplay written by Kurt Winner, who penned the first script.
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The first movie proved to be a hit among critics and viewers, taking $162.6M globally and landing a 71% rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
Shooting will begin in the autumn and both the studio and filmmakers are looking to bring back Ayer, who is currently in production on the Brad Pitt movie The Heart of the Beast, in some capacity.
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Tjahjanto boasts an impressive selection of Indonesian features on Netflix including The Shadow Strays, The Night Comes for Us, and The Big Four. He is currently working on Nobody 2 with Bob Odenkirk.
Directed by Ayer, The Beekeeper follows the story of Adam Clay, a retired operative of an organisation named the "Beekepers" who now works as an actual beekeeper.
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After his kind-hearted landlady Eloise (Phylicia Rashad) dies by suicide after falling prey to a phishing scam, losing millions of dollars from her charity and life savings, he enacts revenge on those responsible.
Previously writing about the first installment in a review, Digital Spy said: "Statham doing his own stunts adds an effectively crunchy feel to the fight sequences. He's also done enough of these movies to perfectly pitch lines like: 'You have laws for these things until they fail – then you have me'.
"Sure, you could criticise several aspects of The Beekeeper, but there's no way you're watching this movie expecting something different to what you're given. It might not be a great movie exactly, but you'll be buzzing to see Jason Statham back doing what he does best."
The Beekeeper is available to watch now on Sky Cinema in the UK.
Reporter, Digital Spy
Harriet is a freelance news writer specialising in TV and movies at Digital Spy.
A horror enthusiast, she joined Digital Spy after working on her own horror website, reviewing films and focusing largely on feminism in the genre.
In her spare time, Harriet paints and produces mixed-media art. She graduated from the University of Kingston with a BA in fine art, where she specialised in painting. She also has an MA in journalism from Birkbeck University.
