The sequel to Jason Statham’s $162 million hit action movie gets an update from the director, and it’s exciting news.
One of worldwide cinema’s most bankable stars, Statham in 2025 has added another hit movie to his list of successes, as the gritty David Ayer-directed A Working Man grossed $100 million on a budget of $40 million.
Statham’s bruising thriller about a former commando seeking to rescue a friend’s kidnapped daughter has also been a hit on streaming. That’s no surprise, as Statham is just as popular on services like Netflix and Prime Video as he is in theaters around the globe.
2026 will see Statham back in theaters with Mutiny, an action thriller about a man wrongfully accused of murder, who goes looking for the real killer. Statham is also set to return in the sequel to his big 2024 hit, which has nabbed The Night Comes For Us director Timo Tjahjanto after the departure of the original movie’s helmer, Ayer.
Timo Tjahjanto Gives An Update On Statham’s Beekeeper 2
The Beekeeper was a surprise hit in January 2024, grossing $162 million, and Beekeeper 2 is now going into production, with director Tjahjanto offering a recent status update. Details on Beekeeper 2’s plot are under wraps, but the original was a wild, action-packed outing starring Statham as a peaceful former special ops agent out for justice.
With Beekeeper director Ayer out of the fold, the sequel’s director Tjahjanto is hard at work putting together his latest action effort, revealing in a recent interview that he was just scouting locations for the Statham-led movie, while discussing what he loves about the first film (via MovieWeb):
Literally two days ago, I was in London scouting for locations [for Beekeeper 2], and now I’m here in LA … I can’t wait, because Beekeeper is obviously one of those movies where it sort of walked the fine line … something absurd about it in a great way, right? I think that’s what I’m drawn to, because I love this absurdist world of Beekeeper and secret agents and all that stuff. But also, there’s something that is really earnest in its sense, where it can be really violent, it can be suddenly very gritty.
Tjahjanto happens to also have directed Bob Odenkirk in Nobody 2, and discussed the similarity between Odenkirk’s character and Statham’s тιтular Beekeeper:
And as most like Jason’s films…I love it, because here we are telling the story of a man like Bob himself, like Statham here right now, he’s playing a character who acknowledged that he’s aging. And I think I’m definitely drawn into characters who are still going, regardless of [how] beaten down they are.
Our Take On Tjahjanto’s Beekeeper 2 Update
Beekeeper helmer Ayer is one of the most-respected action directors in Hollywood, but his Beekeeper 2 replacement Tjahjanto also boasts an impressive filmography, including international hits May the Devil Take You and The Night Comes for Us. That Tjahjanto landed both Beekeeper 2 and Nobody 2 only demonstrates how fast his star is ascending in the world of action cinema.
Beekeeper screenwriter Kurt Wimmer also penned the sequel.
Tjahjanto sounds as though he’s excited to be leading Statham, one of the world’s biggest action stars, in making a sequel to The Beekeeper. He’s particularly high on the original movie’s mix of tones, and from that one can infer that the sequel will be similarly absurd-but-gritty.
Tjahjanto’s revelation that he has been scouting London locations also seemingly confirms that Beekeeper 2 is set to go overseas. Statham’s Beekeeper character is some kind of mysterious special forces agent, who moves in a shady world not dissimilar to that of John Wick. It’s no surprise, then, that the sequel could have an international flavor.
Beekeeper 2 does not yet have a release date.
