5 Years Later, Jason Statham’s Explosive Thriller Is Ready for a Sequel

Even if you’re not particularly wild about the sorts of movies Jason Statham stars in, you really can’t knock the hustle, nor deny the way he’s found his niche and just keeps on reliably delivering the films he’s best at delivering. Not that Wikipedia is perfect, by any means, but Statham’s Wikipedia page does kind of demonstrate this well. Under “Career,” there are three main sections, headed:

• 2000–2010: Rise to prominence
• 2011–2015: Commercial expansion
• 2016–present: Continued success

Could an actor ask for much more? If you want to put your tin foil hat on, you might start wondering whether Statham himself wrote such stuff on Wikipedia, but no. He has risen to prominence, experienced commercial expansion, and then had continued success. It’s hard to deny.

Also, Statham has probably been too busy appearing in movie after movie to worry about nonsense on Wikipedia. Plenty of these have been action/crime/thriller movies, with one of his more recent ones, in this department, being Wrath of Man. This one’s notable for having him re-team with Guy Ritchie some years after his star-making roles in early Ritchie films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000). There’s also 2005’s Revolver, but that one wasn’t quite as good. Still, the pair have had more hits than misses, and of those four movies to date, Wrath of Man feels like it has the most potential to one day (hopefully sooner, rather than later) have a solid sequel.

The Story Told in ‘Wrath of Man’

Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures

It thankfully doesn’t take too long to break down the plot of Wrath of Man. This is a very blunt and straightforward movie, to the point where it’s going to sound like the whole thing’s being given away, but it’s also not really the sort of thing you watch for the story. It’s there, and it exists so there can be some action and suspense. It’s about a mysterious man who only goes by “H” (played by Statham), and what happens when he reveals to the people he works for that he’s more than just a security guard, and has some serious skills with firearms.

He’s a man, and he’s wrathful. There is vengeance he wants to enact, which you can guess by the title and all, with the film just being about him setting his sights on his target, and then methodically going through steps to get what he wants. He’s not challenged to a particularly great extent, which makes Wrath of Man feel a bit like wish fulfillment, but on that front, it could be worse. It mostly works. You get to see Statham being cool, collected, and more than capable of badassery. It’s the sort of thing he’s been doing a lot this decade (see also The Beekeeper, A Working Man, and Shelter), and there’s clearly an audience for it, so good for him.

Where a Potential ‘Wrath of Man 2’ Could Go

H does get mixed up with a gang of people, at a point, and has a score to settle with at least one of them, so if you want to squint a little and count it as a Guy Ritchie gangster film, you probably can. There aren’t as many characters as you find in the earlier Guy Ritchie gangster movies, but they’ve never really set themselves up for sequels, usually because so many people end up dead by the end. That’s sort of the case for Wrath of Man, but Jason Statham’s character survives, and not too many other people really make an impression here in any event, so you could technically continue things with him.

If his actions at the end of the movie set up a cycle of vengeance and violence, perhaps a little like how John Wick and its sequels escalated things, that could work. There isn’t really a lot of backstory to keep exploring with Statham’s character, admittedly, but he could just keep rampaging in one way or another, or go on the defensive or something. Look, whatever they went with, it could be better than Wrath of Man. Call it “Wrath of Men” or something, whatever. This movie is not great, but Guy Ritchie has made great movies before, and there is a very capable – and typically powerful – Jason Statham character here. He’s a promising enough anti-hero, and seeing him shoot and scowl his way through a bunch more nefarious characters, for whatever reason, could be fun.

The Question of Whether Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham Would Even Have the Time to Spare

Image via MGM

But hey, Ritchie and Statham are both busy guys. They’re probably fine with doing other things that aren’t Wrath of Man-related, since neither seems like they’re going to run out of other work any time soon. Ritchie has also found a groove in recent years, maybe even emphasizing quantity over quality, to be perfectly blunt. Counting the yet-to-be-released Wife & Dog and Viva La Madness (the last of them starring Jason Statham), Guy Ritchie has directed eight movies released in the 2020s, and counting, doing more than one a year on average, at this stage.

Statham has also been busy, being part of franchises like Expendables and Fast and Furious, on top of his Guy Ritchie collaborations and some of those previously-mentioned action movies. Also, if there’s one sequel people probably want from Statham, it’s another Crank movie, just to make that a trilogy. But sure, Wrath of Man is in a position where it could get a superior follow-up without too much stress, one would imagine. The 2021 film got a good deal of the backstory and character stuff (what little there needed to be) out of the way, so checking back in, they could just take off and do something wild and action-packed. Time will tell. In any event, neither Statham nor Ritchie seems likely to be going away or taking a break any time soon.