The Hollywood Reporter‘s Borys Kit reports Iko Uwais is being tapped to play the Hard Master in the Paramount/Skydance/All-Spark G.I.Joe off-shoot centered on franchise favorite Snake Eyes.
G.I. Joe lore describes the Hard Master as the tough-as-nails Arasghikage clan martial arts master who trained and crafted the talents of his ninja disciples, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes. His murder would drive the rift between both blood brothers, diverging them toward their factions with Storm Shadow joining Cobra Commander’s army, and Snake Eyes with the titular Joes.
Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) will lead the movie as Snake Eyes opposite Andrew Koji (Cinemax series, Warrior) as Storm Shadow. Robert Schwentke (Red) is directing from a script by Evan Spiliotopolous (Beauty And The Beast).
Uwais’ progression into global stardom has been long and hard-earned from his heyday as a prospective freshman martial arts star in Gareth Evans’ Merantau and The Raid 1 & 2. To date, he leads his own streaming series on Netflix in martial arts fantasy drama, Wu Assassins, and stars opposite lead Joe Taslim in The Night Comes For Us.
His credits also include Headshot with Sunny Pang, Beyond Skyline with Frank Grillo, and Stuber with Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani, while earlier buzz has him mentioned namely for projects including Chinatown Express and Sylvester Stallone producing venture, The Bellhop.
Schwentke’s Snake Eyes film has Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Brian Goldner joining in as producers for the film’s tentative October 16, 2020 release.