THR reports that Samuel L. Jackson is in negotiations to join the cast of J.J. Abrams’s new mystery feature. As expected, there are no details on who Jackson might play in the movie, only that it will be a “key role.“

The film will star Glen Powell (The Running Man), Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) and Emma MacKay (Sex Education). Plot details are naturally being kept under wraps. It was previously speculated that the film would involve time travel, but sources have said that’s not the case. The project is expected to kick off production in the spring in the UK with Abrams directing from a script he wrote. He will also produce through his Bad Robot banner. This will mark Abrams’s first feature film since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which was released in 2019.

Jackson is currently in production on The Beast, an action movie directed by Renny Harlin. The actor stars as the President of the United States. The title refers to the Presidential limousine, which is an impenetrable tank stocked with grenades, shotguns, armour plating, and bullet-and-bombproofing. In addition to Jackson, The Beast also stars Joel Kinnaman (Suicide Squad) and Guy Burnett (Oppenheimer). “When a militia of unidentified hostiles coordinates a coup against the U.S. presidency, the President (Jackson) uncovers the extent of The Beast’s highly classified offensive capabilities,” reads the synopsis of The Beast. “Separated from his wife, the President must learn to control The Beast — and the monster inside himself — in order to save his life, the life of Secret Service agent Taft (Kinnaman), and America.“

The actor will next be seen in Afterburn, a sci-fi action film set ten years after a solar flare has wiped out technology across the globe. Jackson plays a freedom fighter named Valentine and stars alongside Dave Bautista, who plays Jake, an ex-soldier who “works as a treasure hunter recovering valuable objects from the old world for powerful clients. His latest mission is to team up with freedom fighter Drea to recover the Mona Lisa before an unhinged warlord gets there first.” Jackson has also expressed an interest in returning to the Star Wars franchise as Mace Windu, who he insists is still alive.

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