Jason Statham is back for another action movie with A Working Man, and it could launch a mᴀssive franchise for him that keeps him busy for decades. Statham is no stranger to action movie franchises after doing multiple movies for Fast & Furious, The Expendables, The Mechanic, Transporter, and Crank. His expertise in entertaining audiences through various violent means is one of the many reasons why he’s such an in-demand star. Audiences will next get to see Statham go to work in the upcoming action film A Working Man.

There’s arguably even more anticipation for it after Statham turned The Beekeeper into a mᴀssive hit. The movie made $162 million at the box office, and Statham is now confirmed to return for The Beekeeper 2 in the near future. However, A Working Man could be another major success for him. The movie reteams Statham with The Beekeeper‘s director David Ayer. It’s another grounded action film with Statham playing a character seeking revenge for justifiable means. The Beekeeper has solid franchise potential, but A Working Man could be Statham’s next big thing.

Jason Statham’s A Working Man Is Based On A Mᴀssive Book Franchise

The Movie Was Originally Known As Levon’s Trade, Like The Book

A Working Man might seem like another original action movie for Jason Statham and David Ayer, but the truth is that it’s an adaptation of a book series. The project was initially known as Levon’s Trade, the same name as the first book in a series written by Chuck Dixon. The book series follows the protagonist, Levon Cade, a retired counter-terrorism agent now working a construction job. But he’s pulled back into the ᴅᴇᴀᴅly world he left behind to save a local girl who is kidnapped. Despite the тιтle change, A Working Man is a direct adaptation of this story.

Chuck Dixon’s Levon’s Trade book came out in 2014 and became a huge hit. This allowed Dixon to write several more installments about Levon Cade. There are eleven books in the Levon Cade series, with the most recent coming out in 2022. That gives Jason Statham, David Ayer, and Sylvester Stallone (who co-wrote the script with Ayer) a lot of source material to mine from to make even more movies – as long as A Working Man is a success.

It Will Take Jason Statham Decades To Turn All The Levon Cade Books Into Movies

Statham Could Play Levon Cade Until He’s Almost 80

There is no guarantee at this moment that Jason Statham will make multiple sequels to A Working Man. However, there is a clear road map to turn this story into a franchise thanks to Chuck Dixon’s books. The only potential conundrum for the possible franchise is that it will take decades to adapt all these books individually. The most optimistic outlook for the future would be for Statham to make a new installment in the franchise every other year. With ten additional books to adapt, it would take another 20 years for him to tackle each Levon Cade book individually.

If Jason Statham does not want to play Levon Cade for decades, there is a potentially easy solution. While A Working Man is a complete adaptation of the first book, future installments could skip around to tackle different books or combine elements of multiple books into a single film. That could help condense Statham’s time commitment. Similarly, the sequels could radically depart from the source material to craft a different story and end Levon’s story earlier. That’s a decision to be made down the road if A Working Man connects with audiences.