On display for “Expendables 4” from this Wednesday, October 11, Jason Statham played a CIA agent with an inordinate ego in 2015 in the spy comedy “Spy”. Where is the sequel to Paul Feig’s film?
He’s the actor we think of when we talk about action films. Since The Transporter, Jason Statham has played muscular roles and never says no to a good fight, even against a megalodon.
In 2015, the British actor agreed to play a secondary role in Paul Feig’s comedy, Spy. He plays Rick Ford, a CIA agent with an inflated ego who must team up with a CIA analyst, played by Melissa McCarthy, whose first mission it is.
Also led by Jude Law and Rose Byrne, the feature film was a success and recorded $235 million at the international box office.
A counter-productive role
The director also told us during our meeting to promote the film that he was impressed by Jason Statham: “I wrote the character of Rick Ford, a secret agent full of testosterone, and I thought it was the ideal role for Jason.
The funny thing is that the people I had read the script to thought it was a role for a comedy actor. They were surprised when I answered that it was Jason Statham who played him. And I didn’t expect it to be so funny.“
The actor, for his part, really enjoyed playing this role against the grain and even said Empire : “The stupider my character seemed, the more I liked it. I like this kind of humor.“
20th Century Fox Jason Statham in Spy
And the spectators apparently appreciated it since the film received a rating of 3.5/5 stars on AlloCiné, which makes Spy one of the 5 highest rated feature films in Jason Statham’s filmography, and the film the better rated than that of Paul Feig (with In the Shadow of Emily).
Quickly, the team said they were ready to return and director Paul Feig promised that Jason Statham will have a larger role in the sequel, as the post-credits scene of Spy foreshadowed. The director had even started writing the film.
However in 2019, Paul Feig announced that the project was on hiatus because “the studio is not interested“. The takeover of Fox by Disney and the box office failure of the female reboot of Ghostbusters ultimately got the better of the sequel to this offbeat action comedy.
Since then, no more news about Spy 2. Paul Feig has not finished with spy comedies, however, as he plans to direct an action film for Paramount with Sebastian Stan and Maria Bakalova in in which a failed double agent becomes a hero.
For his part, Jason Statham will be showing this Wednesday, October 11 in the action film Expendables 4.