50 years after he started his professional career as a martial artist, and a little over 40 years since he broke into films thanks to his relationship with Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme is about to return to his martial arts roots. Having passed the torch in his own most famous martial arts franchise, he's about to take center stage once more.
The Belgian action icon has consistently made genre movies since his breakout performance in the 1988 cult classic Bloodsport and, along with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, is one of the three most recognized titans of the golden age of action cinema. But he had something that neither Sly nor Arnie could boast: real martial arts credentials. His star power really grew when he starred in Kickboxer, which made over 50 million off just a 3 million budget and started an entire franchise. After that, the action roles just kept coming until a downturn in interest in the kind of movies he made led to a pivot into mostly direct-to-video action movies. But the "Muscles from Brussels" still kept an enthusiastic core audience.
In the last 15 years, he's returned to both the Universal Soldier and Kickboxer franchises, had a major part in the Action Legend series The Expendables, and appeared in sequels for both Kung Fu Panda and Minions. He's clearly always been drawn to nostalgic career choices, whether directly or indirectly, and his latest newly announced movie is great news for fans who've stuck with him since the late '80s. After years of resisting the draw of a true traditional martial arts movie, Van Damme is returning to the genre in which he made his name with Katana, which sounds like the perfect rival to John Wick you didn't know you needed.
Written and directed by Jeremy Zag, Katona casts Van Damme as a former world champion fighter whose attempts to leave his violent past behind are thwarted when he's dragged into Japan's criminal underworld after his daughter is abducted by the deadly Yakuza.
For years, the actor has seemingly hesitated to revisit pure fighting cinema with straighter action movies taking their place, but Zag earned the actor's trust through a shared foundation in martial arts and sold the project as a proper homage to classic combat movies. He'll also be joined by a supporting cast with real martial arts pedigree, including real-world fighters like Armenian MMA fighter Melsik Bagdasarian and French Muay Thai and kickboxing champion Cyril Benzaquen.
The martial arts credentials are already assured on top of Van Damme’s own prowess, and Katana promises a focus on raw physicality and real, tangible action over digital enhancements and stunt doubles. Zag's excitement - related to Deadline on the announcement of the movie - is palpable: “Jean-Claude Van Damme made me want to walk into a dojo. After 30 years of practicing Kyokushin karate at an elite level, directing him in Katana is a lifelong dream come true.
Alongside the appeal of a pure martial arts movie for Jean-Claude Van Damme, Katana is exciting because of what Jeremy Zag has said about its influences. The filmmaker revealed to Deadline that he wants to "bring together the power of Bloodsport, the urgency of Taken, and the energy of John Wick in a deeply human story: a father entering Japan's criminal underworld to save his daughter. His experience is his strength. "I want audiences to feel every impact, every breath, and the love that keeps him fighting."
Marrying those three hugely successful action franchises together is a stroke of genius, especially at this stage of Van Damme's career. The John Wick franchise not only revolutionized modern studio action in the way that it was shot and with the introduction of kung fu, gun fu, but it also gave Keanu Reeves a massive career boost that he's been riding since. Taken did something similar for Liam Neeson, proving that older action stars have a place in the genre, especially when driven by protective, paternal rage. That sort of story is instantly irresistible to wider audiences, and Katana should hit the same notes. The difference here, too, is that while John Wick relied on heavy artillery, Katana will play to Van Damme's strengths and his martial arts experience without having to mask his age (because the story specifically focuses on his veteran status).
The wider future of the John Wick franchise is perhaps not quite as rosy as it once looked after the lesser successes of the most recent spinoffs, but there is still the Caine spinoff to come and Keanu Reeves's return in John Wick 5 and the animated prequel, despite his death at the end of the last movie. Even with more coming, each sequel has taken things further from what made the first movie so incredible.
For fans looking for something that can deliver some of the same notes as the original John Wick movie, especially emotionally, Katana sounds like a great alternative. If it reaches its potential, it could also spark a major late-career renaissance for Jean-Claude Van Damme that rescues him from direct-to-video obscurity and gives him more of the opportunities that Reeves seems to be seeing at the minute.
