Audiences now know when they will finally get to see Idris Elba tackle a blood-thirsty lion on the big screen, with Universal setting a release date of August 19, 2022, for upcoming thriller, Beast. The project was first announced towards the end of last year and will likely be a man-versus-nature movie in the same vein as the likes of The Grey and The Shallows.

Beast finds Idris Elba starring as Dr. Nate Samuels, a widowed husband, and father who, with his two teenage daughters, find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the savannah has but one apex predator. Samuels returns to South Africa, where he first met his wife, on a long-planned trip with their daughters to a game reserve. But what begins as a journey of healing jolts into a fearsome fight for survival when a lion, a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy, begins stalking them.

The movie is being directed by Baltasar Kormákur, whose previous credits include the biographical drama Adrift starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin, and the real-life disaster movie Everest starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, and Elizabeth Debicki. Kormákur clearly has an affinity for the kind of disaster filled action that is needed for a movie centered on Idris Elba fighting a lion, with the movie providing ample opportunity for Elba's dependable intensity amid high-concept, B-movie-style thrills. Kormakur will be working from a script written by Rampage and Non-Stop scribe Ryan Engle. Beast is produced by Will Packer and James Lopez, president of Will Packer Productions, with Jaime Primak Sullivan and Bernard Bellew serving as executive producers.

Aside from battling a man-eating lion in Beast, Idris Elba is continuing his career as an action hero with the upcoming comic book movie The Suicide Squad. Directed by Guardians of the Galaxy's James Gunn, The Suicide Squad stars an all-star ensemble cast alongside Elba including Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, David Mastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man, Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher, John Cena as Peacemaker, Flula Borg as Javelin, Nathan Fillion as T.D.K., Peter Capaldi as Thinker, Pete Davidson as Black Guard, Alice Braga as Sol Soria, Sean Gunn as Weasel, Michael Rooker as Savant, Mayling Ng as Mongal, and Sylvester Stallone as King Shark.

Elba stars in The Suicide Squad as Robert DuBois a.k.a. Bloodsport, a convicted felon who is serving time in prison for shooting none other than Superman himself with a bullet made of the Man of Steel's only weakness, Kryptonite. Gunn has since taken to social media to praise the actor's performance in the movie saying, "I rarely write roles for actors I've never met, but I did exactly that for @idriselba in #TheSuicideSquad & couldn't be happier I did - you went beyond my expectations as an actor AND as a human being. I can't wait for folks to see you as #Bloodsport."

Alongside both Beast and The Suicide Squad, Elba has several projects in the pipeline, such as the western The Harder They Fall, director George Miller's Three Thousand Years of Longing, and the long-awaited big-screen debut of his beloved small-screen detective, Luther. This comes to us courtesy of Deadline.