Sylvester Stallone’s original superhero movie ‘Samaritan’ is moving forward, after being announced about a year ago. 13-year-old boxing prodigy and budding actor Javon “Wanna” Walton has landed the leading role opposite Stallone, as a young boy who sets out to discover whether a powerful superhero who vanished 20 years earlier after a “tragic event” is still alive. Five additional cast members were also announced — Martin Starr, Pilou Asbæk, Dascha Polanco, and Moisés Arias.
This is the first film from Stallone’s Balboa Productions. As such, Stallone and his partner, Braden Aftergood are acting as producers. Julius Avery (‘Overlord’) will direct, based on a script by Bragi F. Schut (‘Escape Room’), with “additional writing” by Mark L. Smith, Zak Penn, and Chuck MacLean.
Walton is a five-time Georgia state champion boxer and 4-time USA Boxing South East regional champion. He is the youngest athlete to score an endorsement deal with Under Armour. He made his acting debut on HBO’s acclaimed drama ‘Euphoria’, on which he portrays a drug dealer named Ashtray. The series stars Zendaya, Maude Apatow, and Storm Reid. He will also co-star in Amazon Prime Video’s ‘Utopia’, written by ‘Gone Girl’s Gillian Flynn. With 16 million Instagram followers, Walton’s big break came after an appearance on Steve Harvey’s talk show, ‘Steve’.
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Details about ‘Samaritan’ are presently unknown, so Walton’s character’s name has yet to be revealed. It also isn’t known who the other actors are playing.
Starr may be best known for playing Bertram Gilfoyle on HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley’, or as beleaguered teacher and chaperone Mr. Harrison in the current ‘Spider-Man’ movies. He also recurred as Oscar on CBS’ ‘Life in Pieces’, and is a frequent reenactor on ‘Drunk History’, and he recently appeared in the acclaimed Amazon drama ‘Honey Boy’. He also made a small cameo on ‘Game of Thrones’. Speaking of ‘GoT’…
Asbæk recurred as Euron Greyjoy on the hit HBO series. He previously worked with director Avery in the 1918 sleeper horror hit ‘Overlord’. Among his other credits are ‘Ghost in the Shell’, ‘The Great Wall’, and ‘Ben-Hur’.
Polanco recently appeared in the Academy Award-nominated ‘The Irishman’, and made a guest appearance on ‘Evil’. She is probably best known for her role as Dayanara Diaz on Netflix’s ‘Orange is the New Black’, and has also appeared on ‘When They See Us’, ‘Russian Doll’, and ‘American Crime Story’.
Former child star Arias, co-starred as Rico on ‘Hannah Montana’, appeared on ‘The Wizards of Waverly Place’, and recurred as Matt on ‘The Middle’. More recently, he portrayed Luis on ‘Jean-Claude Van Johnson’, and appeared in ‘Pitch Perfect 3’, ‘Five Feet Apart’, and on ‘The Good Doctor’.
‘Samaritan’ will be released in theaters on December 11, via United Artists Releasing.
Source: Deadline
