Vin Diesel’s ‘Bloodshot’ Releasing in 2020

Sony’s Bloodshot — the testosterone-driven Valiant Comics adaptation starring Vin Diesel — will hit theaters in 2020, according to the studio.

The studio released the information late last week, and it was given a wider audience by the Exhibitor Relations Twitter account, which keeps a close eye on box office activity.

The movie’s release date will be February 21, 2020, making it a follow-up to February hits Deadpool and Black Panther. In each of those cases, the dates were set relatively early on, when studios did not know what to expect, and in both cases they became big hits. Certainly, with Valiant never having made it to theaters before, the former condition holds for Bloodshot. For the latter, we will have to see.

Preparations are already underway to shoot the movie, which is expected to film late this summer and likely into the fall.

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 Bloodshot movie is planned as the first in a shared Valiant cinematic universe. Harbinger will follow Bloodshot. Each film will receive a sequel before crossing over in the Harbinger Wars movie. The Harbinger tie-in series Faith will have a movie, too, according to an announcement made the week of Comic Con.

Diesel will reteam with Fast & Furious producer Neal Moritz on the project. Dave Wilson will direct. Arrival screenwriter Eric Heisserer is writing the film’s script with Jeff Wadlow.

Toby Kebbell has been cast as the film’s villain, Axe. Little else is known about the movie itself, which has been in a slow but steady development since Diesel entered talks six months ago.

Jason David Frank became the first actor to play Bloodshot in live action when he appeared in Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe earlier this year opposite Arrow veteran Michael Rowe as Ninjak.

h/t Exhibitor Relations