Ed Skrein has signed up to play a villain in the Maleficent sequel.
The 35-year-old will appear alongside Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning in the follow-up to the 2014 movie, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed on Tuesday (17Apr18).
He will take on the baddie role in the movie, but further details about his part have yet to be revealed. British actor Skrein has become known for playing villains since starring as one in his breakout role in 2016’s Deadpool, and will star as another in the upcoming Alita: Battle Angel.
The Maleficent sequel will be directed by Joachim Ronning, most famous for co-helming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and will be produced by Joe Roth. Jez Butterworth and Linda Woolverton are working on the screenplay.
Plot details for the movie, which will start filming later this month, are being kept under wraps, but it will once again focus on Angelina’s portrayal of the Sleeping Beauty antagonist.
Skrein hit headlines last year when he was cast in the Hellboy reboot. His casting led to a whitewashing controversy, as his character is Asian-American in the comic books, and he subsequently stepped away from the part.
“It is clear that representing this character in a culturally accurate way holds significance for people and to neglect this responsibility would continue a worrying tendency to obscure ethnic minority stories and voices in the arts,” he wrote on Instagram. “I feel it is important to honour and respect that. Therefore I have decided to step down so the role can be cast appropriately.”
Daniel Dae Kim later took on the role and praised Skrein “for championing the notion that Asian characters should be played by Asian or Asian-American actors.”
