‘Freelance’: John Cena Joins With ‘Taken’ Director For Special Forces Action Flick

John Cena is having a career year with roles in F9, The Suicide Squad, and Vacation Friends, but we shouldn’t forget where his acting career started. He has the WWE to thank for his first franchise role, that being 2006’s The Marine. While Cena only starred in one before moving on to better things, he’s now taking on a film that sounds like it could’ve fit right in.

Deadline reports Cena will star in Freelance, an action movie from Taken director Pierre Morel and debuting writer Jacob Lentz. The $40M project “follows a special forces operator (Cena) who decides to retire from the Army and start a family back in the states. After several years of mortgage payments, school drop-offs, backyard barbecues and trying to conform to life in suburbia, he decides to come out of retirement to take a gig providing security for a female journalist as she interviews a cruel dictator who may or may not have ordered the attack on him and his men. When a military coup breaks out in the middle of the interview, the three are forced to escape into the jungle where they must survive the elements, the military and one another.”

Oh yeah, this could’ve been The Marine 7 easy! Only better because this one has Morel behind it, in his first film since directing Peppermint in 2018. He’s also the director behind one of the best action movies ever, 2004’s District B13.

Coming up for Cena is Suicide Squad spinoff Peacemaker over on HBO Max. He also has F9 sequel F10, and a sequel to Vacation Friends.

Travis Hopson
Travis Hopson has been reviewing movies before he even knew there was such a thing. Having grown up on a combination of bad '80s movies, pro wrestling, comic books, and hip-hop, Travis is uniquely positioned to geek out on just about everything under the sun. A vampire who walks during the day and refuses to sleep, Travis is the co-creator and lead writer for Punch Drunk Critics. He is also a contributor to Good Morning Washington, WBAL Morning News, and WETA Around Town. In the five minutes a day he's not working, Travis is also a voice actor, podcaster, and Twitch gamer. Travis is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association (CCA), Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and Late Night programmer for the Lakefront Film Festival.