Vin Diesel's 'Bloodshot' Adds Three Cast Members

Sony is beginning to round out the cast of Bloodshot, the forthcoming Valiant Comics adaptation starring Guardians of the Galaxy's Vin Diesel, according to Variety.

Eiza Gonzalez (Baby Driver), Michael Sheen (Masters of Sex), and Sam Heughan (Outlander) will join Diesel in the film, which centers around Ray Garrison, a super-soldier created by the secret government organization Project Rising Spirit.

The film will reportedly film this summer, so it seems likely that rather than being the start of production, Diesel is simply letting the world know that the rumors are true, and that he's getting ready for Bloodshot.

Garrison's powers come from "nanites," which enter his bloodstream and give him a variety of powers, including the ability to recover from almost any trauma by consuming protein.

The process which gave him his powers also installed a number of implanted identities into Bloodshot's brain, creating a lasting identity crisis. For most of his publishing history, Bloodshot has not known his true identity, and has had no life outside of being Bloodshot. The current Bloodshot Reborn series, in which he tries (and mostly fails) to have a normal life, could easily be a major influence on the feature film, as it would ground the character somewhat.

The idea of the implanted identities was not to dehumanize him (although at times that provided some unexpected boons) but to give him personal motivations for each new mission.

His original purpose was to hunt down and capture or assassinate psiots -- rogue superhumans with mental powers that had been developed as part of Project Rising Spirit. Eventually, he broke through his programming and set about trying to learn the truth about himself.

Created in 1992 by Kevin VanHook, Don Perlin, and Bob Layton, Bloodshot's anonymous backstory likely owes something to Wolverine, who was also the product of a clandestine experiment that gave him a healing factor. Wolverine's own past was largely unwritten at the time of Bloodshot's creation. Agonizing about, and searching for, his true self was a major part of Wolverine's story in the' 90s.

When Valiant relaunched in 2012 after about a decade without new comics, Duane Swierczynski reinvented Bloodshot for the new line.

The character made his live-action debut this spring in Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe, which debuted exclusively on ComicBook.com. In the series, Bloodshot was played by former Mighty Morphin Power Rangers star Jason David Frank.

Eric Heisserer, the award-winning screenwriter who currently works on comics for Valiant, will write the film for director Dave Wilson. Neal Moritz of the Fast and Furious franchise will produce.

Little else is known about the project, although Jared Leto is reportedly in talks to play villain Angelo Mortalli. The hope is that Bloodshot will be successful enough to launch a trilogy of interconnected films, including the Project Rising Spirit-heavy Harbinger and Harbinger Wars.