Vin Diesel in Talks to Star in Bloodshot Comic Book Adaptation for Sony

Based on his “body” of work, Fast & Furious star Vin Diesel seems like an ideal candidate to play a superhero in a big budget popcorn movie so it’s surprising that he hasn’t been offered such a role before now (voicing Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t count). While his relationship with Marvel remains intact — he’s slated to return as the voice of the angsty “teen Groot” in Avengers: Infinity War — Diesel may be jumping ship to take a lead role in a movie based on a Valiant Comics character.

According to TheWrap, Diesel is in talks to star in Bloodshot, the second in a planned five-film shared universe of movies based on Valiant comic books. Fast & Furious franchise guru Neal Moritz is producing the movie for Sony, with Dave Wilson (Deadpool director Tim Milller‘s studio partner) directing from a script by Eric Heisserer (Arrival), who is also writing the script for Harbinger, the first movie in the series. Bloodshot will follow the model of Deadpool and Logan by placing its hero in a hard-R environment that is “tonally and aesthetically influenced by high-concept, sci-fi blockbusters” like Robocop and Terminator.

Early word on the plot of Harbinger is that it will tell the story of one “harbinger” — the term in the Valiant universe for those who develop superpowers — who goes on the run from those who wish to use his telekinetic powers for their own ends, including Bloodshot, a mortally wounded soldier who was brought back to life and given given extraordinary abilities to aid him in the task of rounding up harbingers for a secretive cabal. Bloodshot will supposedly appear as the villain in the Harbinger movie before his solo movie outing, which will likely see him in conflict with his benefactors.

Bloodshot is tentatively slated for a 2019 release.