Jason Statham Returning for ‘The Beekeeper 2’

The buzz continues for the beekeeper — with Jason Statham returning to star in “The Beekeeper 2.”

The Miramax movie is set to start production in the fall, with “Nobody 2” director Timo Tjahjanto taking the reins from David Ayer, who helmed the first kooky conspiracy thriller, which debuted last January and grossed $152 million worldwide.

Statham stars as Adam Clay, a retired government assassin (a former “Beekeeper” operative turned actual honeycomb minder) who gets back in the game after a phishing attack targets the kindly old woman (Phylicia Rashad) from whom he rents a barn, stealing millions of dollars from a charity she runs. As Clay goes berserker mode in his quest for vengeance, the film turns into the kind of actioner audiences expect from Statham — with his gruff, baldheaded vigilante leaving a bloody trail in his wake, but ultimately beating the bad guys.

In his review, Variety’s Peter Debruge described “The Beekeeper” as “the best kind of bad movie — which is to say, it’s the sort that puts entertainment ahead of pretentiousness, embracing the laughter sure to accompany such an unapologetically stupid, ultra-violent premise.” He wrote: “Saddled with a ludicrous (but never less than hilarious) script, director David Ayer puts fun ahead of plausibility, treating the Clay character as the ultimate enforcer anytime America’s (imperfect) system of checks and balances needs adjustment.”

Statham teased the possibility of a sequel in an interview ahead of the first film’s release, telling Variety, “The whole movie escalates in terms of the action. And it goes through an incredible, great crescendo. The whole world [of the film] has a mythology of the ‘beekeeping’ world. If we were fortunate enough to make a sequel, we have a whole world that we can dive into.”

Tjahjanto — who is currently in post on “Nobody 2” for Universal, following a string of massive Indonesian hits (“The Shadow Strays,” “The Night Comes for Us” and “The Big Four”) on Netflix — directs from a script by Kurt Wimmer, who penned the first film. In addition to starring in the film, Statham will also produce the project through his Punch Palace Productions shingle, alongside Chris Long who produces for his Long Shot Productions.

Statham and Long are repped by attorney Patrick Knapp. Tjahjanto is repped by WME, 360 Management, and attorney Mario Rush.

Deadline was first to report news of the greenlight.