Sean Bean has joined the growing cast of director Ridley Scott's sci-fi drama The Martian.

Matt Damon stars as an American astronaut who finds himself stranded on a Martian colony as he struggles to survive long enough for NASA to rescue him. Sean Bean will play a NASA flight director, joining a cast that already includes Jessica Chastain, Michael Peña and Jeff Daniels.

Ridley Scott is directing from a screenplay by Drew Goddard, based on the novel by Andy Weir. Ridley Scott is also producing alongside Aditya Sood and Simon Kinberg.

It hasn't been confirmed when shooting will begin, but we reported back in June that production will start sometime this fall.

Sean Bean currently stars on the TNT series Legends. On the big screen, he will next be seen in Jupiter Ascending (February 6, 2015) and Pixels (July 24, 2015).