An Under Siege reboot is in the works for HBO Max, and there are numerous action stars who would be great candidates to anchor the movie. Released in 1992, Under Siege was the mainstream breakthrough for '90s star Steven Seagal, and is revered today for bringing the Die Hard formula to a battleship setting. Timo Tjahjanto will reportedly direct the reboot, and while the new lead hasn't been cast yet, there are several great potential leads for it.
The original Under Siege followed Seagal's Casey Ryback, a former Navy Seal-turned-cook aboard the soon-to-be decommissioned USS Missouri battleship. However, one of the crew members turns traitor and is revealed to be in league with a group of mercenaries. Ryback is then forced to dust off his skills in order to thwart their plans to steal all of the ship's nuclear warheads.
Under Siege was about as pure an early '90s action film as one could get. Tjahjanto is a skilled action director, but anyone cast in the lead should also have legitimate action cred on their resume. Here are a few great action stars who could lead the Under Siege reboot.
Keanu Reeves
One such candidate for Ryback would be Keanu Reeves. In addition to returning as Neo for The Matrix Resurrections, Reeves has really showcased his action hero chops in the John Wick movies, and the amount of training he's put in for the franchise's gun-fu and martial arts battles is legendary. Reeves would also bring more of an everyman feel to Ryback, able to keep his deadly skills believably hidden.
Charlize Theron
The name Casey Ryback is also rather gender-neutral, so the lead of the Under Siege reboot could easily be gender-swapped, and Charlize Theron would make a strong pick for a female version of Ryback. Theron has similarly put in blood, sweat, and tears for action movies like Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde. Theron's performance and action scenes in Atomic Blonde have been compared to John Wick and both movies make her look terribly underutilized in her Fast & Furious appearances. With the sheer toughness she brought to the roles of Furiosa and Lorraine Broughton, Theron similarly has the talent to embody a Navy Seal who becomes the last hope for a battleship overtaken by terrorists.
Joe Taslim
With director Timo Tjahjanto coming from the Indonesian film industry, it wouldn't be surprising if he elected to bring aboard some Indonesian stars he's worked with, and Joe Taslim would make a great pick. Taslim previously headlined Tjahjanto's underworld martial arts film The Night Comes For Us, and the former Judo champion is well-known by action fans for his appearances in The Raid: Redemption and Fast & Furious 6. Taslim has also achieved more mainstream recognition outside of Indonesia for his role on the martial arts series Warrior and his portrayal of Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat, which could potentially be followed by Noob Saibot. With the grit and physicality he consistently brings, Taslim would also make a strong leading man for the Under Siege reboot.
Julie Estelle
Going back to the gender-swapping idea, Julie Estelle could also make a great female version of Casey Ryback for the reboot. Estelle is known for her portrayal of the villainess Hammer Girl in The Raid 2, and would later re-team with Iko Uwais for Headshot, co-directed by Tjahjanto. Estelle would later go on to steal the show as the mysterious Operator in The Night Comes For Us, and her relative inexperience in martial arts prior to her action movie roles is the kind of thing one would have to Google in order to believe. The Operator, who could lead a spinoff, especially showed Estelle's charisma as an action heroine in a harrowing underworld war where bladed combat is the norm, traits she could easily carry over as the new Casey Ryback. The Under Siege reboot has no shortage of great options for who could lead it, but the choices of Keanu Reeves, Charlize Theron, Joe Taslim, or Julie Estelle would be a great place to start.