Jason Statham Reveals His Inner John Wick in The Beekeeper’s First Trailer

Jason Statham’s latest action hero is playing by his own rules in the first trailer for the upcoming action-thriller, The Beekeeper.

MGM recently debuted the official restricted trailer for The Beekeeper, featuring Statham’s character going full John Wick on a phishing company that cleaned out his former neighbor’s bank accounts. While Statham’s character, referred to as “Mr. Clay,” at the beginning of the trailer was living a peaceful life as a beekeeper, viewers slowly learn that that title holds another meaning and that Mr. Clay was once part of a powerful and clandestine organization known as “Beekeepers.”

With no one to trust, including government and law enforcement, Statham is a one-man army on a mission to take down the phishing company’s entire chain of command in The Beekeeper, which also features fan-favorite actors Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games) and Jeremy Irons (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice). David Ayer, best known for directing Fury and Suicide Squad, helmed The Beekeeper, which is being envisioned as the start of a new franchise.

Jason Statham Can’t Resist a Good Action Role

Statham is coming off of one of the biggest flops in his career, Expend4bles, the fourth installment in The Expendables franchise. The R-rated action movie opened to a surprisingly low $8 million domestically, finishing in second place that weekend behind The Nun II. Expend4bles’ box office has since grown to $40.8 million, meaning the movie still has a long way to go before earning back its reported $100 million budget.

While Expend4bles failed to light up the box office, Statham still managed to have at least one hit this year. The actor headlined Meg 2: The Trench, which was released during the Summer box office season. The long-awaited sequel to 2018’s The Meg was a minor box office success for Warner Bros., grossing $395 million worldwide despite mixed reviews from critics.

Will Warner Bros. #ReleaseTheAyerCut?

The Beekeeper comes amid continued pressure from DC fans for Warner Bros. Discovery to release the director’s cut of Suicide Squad. The online campaign, which uses the hashtag #ReleaseTheAyerCut, began after multiple sources revealed the 2016 DC Extended Universe installment had been heavily edited in post-production. Ayer has since confirmed the reports, claiming his “unseen film plays much better than the studio release.” While new DC Studios co-head James Gunn hasn’t responded to fan demands to release Ayer’s version, the director stated that Gunn had told him that his version “would have [its] time to be shared.”