Jason Statham’s New R-Rated Action Thriller Just Dropped a Major Cast Update as Cameras Roll

Jason Statham is back in beekeeper mode, cameras are rolling, and the sequel just stacked its cast. If you liked the first movie’s mix of dead-serious vigilante rage and ridiculous world-building, it sounds like part two is leaning even harder into that lane.

Where The Beekeeper 2 stands

The sequel was officially announced in February 2025 and is now filming. The first movie hit theaters in January 2024 under director David Ayer, quietly turned into a word-of-mouth hit with about $162 million worldwide, and got a warmer reception from critics than you might expect for a revenge thriller about, well, beekeeping. For round two, Timo Tjahjanto is in the director’s chair. The story is locked down tight for now, but Tjahjanto did drop the new logo on Instagram, so the marketing drip has begun.

Cast update

Here’s who is buzzing back (and who’s new):

• Jason Statham returns as Adam Clay
• Returning from the first film: Jemma Redgrave, Bobby Naderi, Emmy Raver-Lampman, and Jeremy Irons
• New addition: Yara Shahidi

The vibe Tjahjanto is chasing

This is where it gets a little inside baseball. Tjahjanto has been open about the tone he wants: he sees Adam Clay as his way of channeling Marvel’s most brooding vigilante without actually making a Marvel movie. In August, he basically said the quiet part out loud:

"If I can’t make The Punisher film, then I’ll turn Adam Clay into my own version of The Punisher."

He also called out what worked for him in the first movie: an 'absurdist' secret-agent universe that can pivot from earnest to brutally violent to gritty on a dime. Translation: expect operatic mayhem with a straight face.

What we still don’t know

Plot specifics remain completely under wraps, and no release timing has been announced yet. For now, the big takeaways are that filming is underway, the core players are back, Yara Shahidi has joined the swarm, and the director is openly steering this thing toward full-on vigilante fury. Sounds like the honey is about to get darker.