Here’s some awesome news that director Pedring Lopez shared with me which comes from an exclusive report over at Film Combat Syndicate. The Filipino action-thriller Maria which starred Cristine Reyes in the blood soaked tale of an ex-hitwoman thrust back into action to avenge her family is primed for a sequel with Reyes returining along with Lopez helming once again.

Per the report at FCS, the sequel has added some rather serious action muscle as both Yayan Ruhian And Cecep Arif Rahman from The Raid films are set to join Reyes for the highly anticiapted sequel. The first film had some kick ass action set pieces but with both Ruhian and Rahman added to the cast, the sequel should be off the charts.

In the article Lopez stated:

“I have high hopes for this sequel with Yayan and Cecep joining us for the ride.” says Lopez. “If you enjoyed what we helped put together in the first film, this next chapter is gonna be explosive. We have a complete script and I’m back with Sonny Sison and his team who are gonna make some very cool things happen for this next chapter in this violent, kinetic and intense saga. This round of casting is just the start, so get ready. More Maria is coming!”

The plot details are not known at this time but Lopez has stated that he is making Maria into a trilogy so this second film boads well with the cast news made here.

 Ronnie Lazaro who starred in the first film as Maria’s mentor and confident Sir Greg is expected to return as well along with K.C. Montero who played the Black Rose Lietenant Victor in the original. The production is said to commence later this year.

Netflix recently acquired Maria and has been showing the film on its streaming service for a few months now since the film premiered in The Philippines in March and the action pic has garnered some pretty impressive reviews including myself to which you can read my thoughts on the film here. The film was quite simply bad ass and it showcased Reyes as a new star in the action genre.

Ruhian was recently seen in The Night Comes For Us where he reunited with Raid co-star Joe Taslim while Rahman gave Keanu Reeves a run for his money in John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum.

This is certainly good news as the first film was left open for more to come and it looks like we will get two more films in the universe. Keep it locked and loaded right here for more to come!