Jason Statham might have hung up his driving gloves for The Transporter films but that hasn’t stopped a fourth entry going into production. The producers had two choices in order to continue the franchise, reboot or prequel, they’ve opted for the prequel path and have cast Game of Thrones actor Ed Skrein as a younger Frank Martin. 

Ed Skrein stars as Daario Naharis on Game of Thrones, making his debut in last year’s third season he will play a bigger role in the highly anticipated fourth season which starts on April 6. Former editor Camille Delamarre (Transporter 3, Taken 2) will be directing and Luc Besson’s production company EuropaCorp will be producing, this is expected to launch a new trilogy of Transporter movies.

This isn’t the first time The Stath’s signature role has been recast, last year Cinemax brought Transporter: The Series to the small screen with Chris Vance in the title role. The 12 episode series retained François Berléand as Inspector Tarconi from the movie franchise and production is getting underway to shoot the second season.

A Stathamless Transporter movie could be a difficult sell to the hardcore fans, given the modest box office success of all three previous entries; this is a franchise built on hardcore fans and might not survive without the leading man. The new film will explore Frank Martin’s relationship with his father and how he got into his specialist line of work, the role of Martin senior is reportedly earmarked for a well known actor and screams of “he’ll be dead within the first half hour of the movie”. Filming is due to start this June for an early 2015 release and we’ll keep you updated with all the latest developments.