It was just a few months ago that Jason Momoa was announced as the headline star of the upcoming Helldivers film, but it seems that plans have changed. A Deadline report, later confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter, says Momoa is now out.
The reason for Momoa’s departure isn’t currently known, although both sites confirmed that the project is still moving ahead, with Fast & Furious director Justin Lin at the helm. Still, the loss of Momoa is a big blow: To me he’ll always be Ronon Dex, the hunka hunka burning Satedan renegade and sad-eyed wife guy of Stargate Atlantis, but in the years since then he’s become one of the biggest big-screen draws in the business.
Momoa isn’t hurting for work: He’s appearing as Blanka in the Street Fighter film coming in October (which looks surprisingly fun) and will reprise his Minecraft movie role in the upcoming sequel, A Minecraft Movie Squared. Alongside those videogame-focused roles, he’s also portraying Lobo in the Supergirl film coming later this year, turning up as Duncan Idaho in the concluding chapter of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, doing Dante Reyes in Fast Forever, and has other stuff coming on top of that. Basically, he’s a busy man.
There may have also been a salary beef behind the split, or the classic creative differences, or maybe he just gave Starship Troopers a rewatch for the first time and realized that, hey, it’s already been done. Whatever the reason, Sony is now on the hunt for a new star. I would imagine that’s going to be a little disruptive for the shooting schedule, but the Deadline report says that for the moment, the Helldivers film remains set to arrive in theaters on November 10, 2027.