Before the MCU, Jason Statham Took On the Multiverse — The One Deserves a Sequel Now

Jason Statham does not mind punching a shark, driving a car through a wall, or sprinting through a movie like his blood is Red Bull. But when it comes to full-on sci-fi, he has mostly kept it selective. Which is funny, because early in his career he chased Jet Li across the multiverse in a movie that should have been franchise bait and then... disappeared. Let’s talk about why that happened with The One.

Statham’s dance with sci-fi has been careful, not constant

Statham has built a very dependable action lane: The Beekeeper this year, the Fast & Furious saga, the early-career breakout with The Transporter, and pure mayhem in the Crank movies as human pinball Chev Chelios. He also swings when it makes sense, like teaming with Melissa McCarthy in the comedy Spy or going full megalodon in the Meg movies.

When he flirts with sci-fi, it tends to be in a hybrid way. Death Race put him in a dystopia where freedom is something you floor it toward. John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars sent him to another planet to deal with, yes, zombie ghost people. Even Hobbs & Shaw tiptoed in with a villain upgraded by science. The full-on genre leap is rare for him, which is why The One stands out.

The One was multiverse sci-fi before multiverse sci-fi was trendy

Right after making noise in Guy Ritchie’s Snatch, Statham signed on to The One alongside Jet Li, Delroy Lindo, Dean Norris, and Carla Gugino. Several cast members play multiple versions of themselves because the film’s hook is a stunt the MCU would not mainstream for another decade: hop dimensions, meet alternate yous, and deal with the consequences.

Li headlines twice over. He is the bad guy, ripping through the multiverse to assassinate alternate versions of himself so the survivors become stronger, and he is also Gabe, the decent counterpart who becomes the only real obstacle to that plan. The result is exactly the kind of high-concept fight-fest you want from Jet Li: the hero and the villain are both Jet Li, and the movie engineers clever showcases for him to face himself. Statham and Lindo play the interdimensional cops trying to stop the body count as the chase barrels through different realities. Some of the effects were bold for the time, and you can feel the movie straining to make its tech and world-building pop.

So why did a ready-made franchise never get a sequel?

• It made money, just not the kind that makes studios sprint back: reported $49 million budget, $79 million worldwide. Depending on marketing, that is a slim theatrical profit.
• It actually found a second wind at home: the early DVD boom loved a visual showpiece, and The One’s effects and color popped on shiny new players and TVs.
• Reviews were rough. Critics hit the script and characters hard, even while giving the action and tech their due. It sits at about 13% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes; the audience score is higher, but still in the red. The ending rubbed plenty of viewers the wrong way, and the character work felt stiff next to the spectacle.
• Time has not been kind to every effect shot. Some of the once-ambitious VFX now play hit-or-miss, which did not help its reputation over the years.

The irony: the movie had the parts

The One had a bankable lead at the time in Jet Li, a now-loaded supporting cast (Statham, Lindo, Gugino, Norris), a clean franchise premise, and a concept that only got hotter later. It is a weird little time capsule: forward-thinking on the idea side, uneven on the character side, and launched just before studios decided multiverses print money.

Is it time for a return trip?

Statham has never needed glowing reviews to keep steamrolling ahead. He has a loyal audience that shows up for bone-simple, well-executed action. If there was ever a moment for him to jump back into a big sci-fi swing, this would be it. A sequel could lean into the original’s strongest ideas and age them up; a reboot could take the clean premise and retool the character work that held it back. Either way, there is real juice in that multiverse hook that has been sitting there, gathering dust, while Statham keeps sharpening his particular set of screen skills.

Short version: The One had the makings of a series, got clipped by bad notices, eked out a profit, found a home on DVD, and then drifted into cult obscurity. The ingredients are still there. So is Statham. Someone just needs to hit 'go.'