Meg 2 cast and review round-up as Jason Statham sequel lands in cinemas

Watch out Jaws, there's a new shark in town and this one's brought its pals along for the ride.

Jason Statham sequel Meg 2: The Trench has landed in cinemas following an audacious trailer that teased more tooth-based action.

The summer blockbuster is the follow-up to the unexpected 2018 hit The Meg which saw Statham take on a 75-foot-long shark.

Grossing more than half a billion dollars worldwide, The Meg was the best performing solo film of Statham's career and was also a big hit in China.

Read on for everything we know about Meg 2: The Trench.

Meg 2: The Trench release date

Meg 2: The Trench is out now in UK cinemas.

Thanks to the success of the first film, the sequel was greenlit shortly after its release and confirmed in 2020.

Meg 2: The Trench plot

Meg 2 is based on the novel The Trench by Steve Allen which continues the adventures of Jonas, a paleobiologist who had to defeat a megalodon.

In the book, he discovers another prehistoric monster called a Kronosaurus which was thought extinct which he must battle and defeat.

Meg 2: The Trench reviews

The reviews for Meg 2: The Trench are in, and the sequel hasn't caused quite as big of a splash as its director Ben Wheatley or star Statham might have hoped.

Digital Spy's write-up claimed that the movie needs "to focus more on the sharks and less on the humans," while Variety had harsher words for its clunky screenplay, saying: "If you want to know what a movie would sound like were it written entirely by AI, look no further than The Meg 2." Ouch.

Read our full review round-up after the jump.

Digital Spy: Meg 2: The Trench forgets it's a shark movie (4-min read)

The Telegraph: A Jason Statham giant shark battle shouldn’t be this boring (3-min read)

Evening Standard: Watch a franchise eat itself alive! (3-min read)

The Guardian: Jason Statham v seamonsters, round two (2-min read)

Variety: More Sharks, Less Bite (5-min read)

Meg 2: The Trench cast

Statham returns as hero Jonas Taylor in a role that makes use of his diving background and is one of the four movies he has coming out this year along with Operation Fortune, Fast X and The Expendables 4.

Also returning from the first film is Cliff Curtis (who also starred alongside Statham in Hobbs and Shaw), and Page Kennedy while Li Bingbing who played a female oceanographer is not rejoining the rest of the cast.

The biggest addition to the movie is Wu Jing, the highest grossing actor of all time in China. The action hero is best known for his performances in the Wolf Warrior movies and a string of recent hits including The Battle at Lake Changjin, The Battle at Lake Changjin II and The Wandering Earth 2 which are among the highest grossing films of all time.

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Resident Evil and Luther actor Sienna Guillory has also joined the cast, playing the director of an oceanographic institute.

Meg 2: The Trench director

While National Treasure director Jon Turteltaub was behind the camera on the first film, he has been replaced by Britain's own Ben Wheatley for the sequel.

Wheatley is best known for his low budget genre movies such as Sightseers and Kill List but also directed the Rebecca remake for Netflix and the action film Free Fire.

Meg 2: The Trench trailer

The official trailer for Meg 2 was released on Monday, 8 May and it gave fans their first look at the next chapter in the franchise, including the deadliest megalodon yet.

From the looks of the teaser clip, Jonas Taylor and his team will have a difficult job on their hand trying to contain not one but multiple megalodons, which have resurfaced from deep within the ocean and are now a threat to all of mankind.

Meg 2: The Trench is out now.