Warner Bros., also known as the company that teases DC goodness only to take it away, announced its slate of theatrical releases for 2023 and one notable entry is the return of The Stath in Meg 2: The Trench. The action star is set to karate kick more prehistoric sharks in the face this August as the release date has been revealed.

August 4th is the date to be exact as the plot to the film is still a mystery. The author of the book, Steve Alten, has mentioned that this entry will definitely be darker in tone than the original and might even earn an R rating. This bodes well as Statham went on record saying that he thought the first film should have been more bloodier. It was still kick ass though and if the sequel gets more intense than the more the merrier.

Cliff Curtis, Shuya Sophia Cai, and Page Kennedy are all set to return while new cast additions include Sienna Guillory (Resident Evil: Apocalypse), Skyler Samuels (The Gifted), and Sergio Peris-Mencheta (Rambo: Last Blood). International action and martial arts star Wu Jing has also enlisted which is a kick ass addition to say the least.

THR did elaborate a little on what to expect in terms of plot last year and it does sound enticing to say the least.

“Peris-Mencheta is playing one of the film’s antagonists, a hard-edged mercenary. Guillory is the head of an applied sciences division, while Samuels is an adventure-loving member of Statham’s submarine crew.”

Like I said in a previous article last year, “One takeaway from the above quote is that there will be human antagonists for Statham to deal and they will be of the mercenary variety. So The Stath will not only have to contend with enormous, prehistoric sharks but he’s also going to have to open a can of whoop ass on some highly trained baddies so we will get some tasty fight set pieces to go along with the gigantic shark action.”

Hopefully, we get more details and a first look trailer soon and don’t forget that Statham also has Expendables 4 hitting a month later on September 22nd!

Keep it locked and loaded right here for more updates as we are your destination for everything action in the new year and beyond!