Samara Weaving has landed a role in the new ‘G.I Joe’ spin-off ‘Snake Eyes’.
The 27-year-old Australian actress enjoyed a breakthrough role in horror comedy ‘Ready or Not’ and will play counter-intelligence Scarlett – who was previously portrayed by Rachel Nichols in the franchise.
‘Crazy Rich Asians’ star Henry Golding will play the title character, a trained ninja who ends up a key member of the Joes and has a romance with Scarlett. Andre Koji, Iko Uwais and Ursula Corbero will also feature.
‘Snake Eyes’, which will be released next year, is a spin-off to the previous two ‘G.I Joe’ films, 2009’s ‘The Rise of the Cobra’ and 2013’s ‘Retaliation’ – both of which are inspired by the military inspired toy range of the same name.
The story will focus on Snake Eyes and his quest for vengeance after his father’s death and his training alongside enemy Storm Shadow (Andre) under the tutelage of Hard Master (Iko).
Robert Schwentke will direct the film, with the script penned by ‘Beauty and the Beast’ screenwriter Evan Spiliotopoulos.
Samara, 27, has also featured in ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ and ‘The Babysitter.’
Henry, whose character was played by ‘Star Wars’ actor Ray Park in the first two films, has landed roles in ‘The Gentleman’, ‘Last Christmas’ and ‘A Simple Favour’ since starring in ‘Crazy Rich Asians.’
The 32-year-old previously admitted that he wanted to branch out into roles that made him more than "the Asian leading man".
He said: "I don’t want to be defined as the Asian leading man. I want to be the leading man. Henry Golding. If it means helping inspire other Asians to be leading men, hell yeah, I’ll take it. You don’t know how proud I am to have that associated with my name.
"Sadly, we’re so underrepresented that we have to start with these labels to be proud of it, to normalise it. So shit, I’ll be the next Asian leading man."