Jeremy Irons is set to return for The Beekeeper 2

Fresh off of directing the Bob Odenkirk action sequel Nobody 2 for Universal, Timo Tjahjanto is gearing up to go into production on the Jason Statham action sequel The Beekeeper 2 for Miramax and Amazon MGM. The original was directed by David Ayer from a screenplay written by Kurt Wimmer. The Beekeeper was a crowd-pleasing actioner that was a modest hit for Statham and showed us what happens when one man’s brutal campaign for vengeance takes on national stakes after he is revealed to be a former operative of a powerful and clandestine organization known as “Beekeepers.”

Wimmer returns to write the sequel and the script will involve the return of Jeremy Irons’ character, Wallace Westwyld, a former CIA director serving as the head of security for Danforth Enterprises. According to Deadline, Irons will be returning to reprise his role. In the first film, Statham played Adam Clay, a retired clandestine human intelligence operative who sets out for revenge after his kind-hearted landlady becomes the victim of a phishing scam that steals millions of dollars from a charity she runs. Plot details on the next entry are yet to be revealed.

Meanwhile, Tjahjanto recently explained that he was drawn to the Beekeeper sequel because it gives him the chance to make his own version of the Marvel character The Punisher. Tjahjanto told Screen Rant, “I’m definitely drawn to the Beekeeper series just because when I watched it, I always felt that, ‘Wow, this is essentially Statham playing one of my favorite characters in the Marvel universe,’ which is The Punisher. If I can’t make The Punisher film, if the gods of film aren’t allowing me to do a Punisher film yet, then I’ll turn Adam Clay into my own version of The Punisher. Which is great! I think Statham has that quality in him. He has that very stoic Frank Castle-esque quality to him. And I love that Adam Clay is definitely a guy who is quite colorful in his choice of violence. He gets really, really creative with his violence.” The director added that he’s having fun planning the fight scenes and teased there’s an “escalation of just how big the villains are in this film.“ How much bigger can they get when Clay took down the President in the first film?

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