World’s Strongest Man runner-up Hafthor Bjornsson’s has added another role to his acting resume in a sequel to the classic 1980s Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, Kickboxer.
After four direct-to-DVD sequels, the series was rebooted last year with Kickboxer: Vengeance, a movie that starred some pretty big names like Dave Bautista (Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy), MMA champions Georges St. Pierre and Gina Carano, and Van Damme himself.
Bjornsson appears in the sequel of the reboot, Kickboxer: Retaliation, which also stars Van Damme, Mike Tyson, and Christopher Lambert doing his best impression of Raiden from the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie.
Take a look in the video below, which shows two slightly different trailers back-to-back. The second one has Bjornsson fighting with two swords, a combat style that’s part of the Thai weapons system called krabi krabong.
According to the plot synopsis, Bjornsson is playing a villainous character called Mongkut who appears to be the movie’s boss fight. The synopsis states:
Kurt (the protagonist) soon learns that in order to be allowed to leave Thailand he needs to fight a new formidable foe named Mongkut, who is a beast of a man, standing at 6’8″ and weighing in around 400 lbs of solid muscle.
Kurt does not fully comprehend the challenge he has ahead of him until he encounters the pure size and strength of the man named Mongkut. Through much pain and pure determination, Kurt is put through some of the most enduring training he has ever experienced to prepare him for the fight for his life.
Bjornsson was releasing photos from the set about this time last year, though we must say that putting his character in Adidas slides was an unusual stylistic choice for a terrifying super-villain.
There’s currently no release date for Kickboxer: Retaliation but Muscle & Fitness reports that it’s set to premier in the second half of 2017. Whether or not it goes straight to DVD (it will), we’ll definitely be watching.
Featured image via New Trailer Buzz on YouTube.
