Most folks know Keegan-Michael Key as a funny guy who went from MadTV to being one of the creators of Comedy Central’s Key and Peele series. However, his next big role puts him in squarely in sci-fi, as part of Shane Black’s upcoming movie, The Predator.
The crew of ex-Marine vets who’ll be fighting the titular alien in The Predator. Photo: 20th Century Fox
An interview in CNET Magazine with the lanky comedian explains that he took on his role in The Predator to try and expand the kinds of roles he’s able to play:
… I’m making a change in my career right now. I’ve always been fascinated by action movies, thrillers, dramas, martial arts, gunplay – I’ve been a big James Bond fan, and I loved kung fu movies as a kid. And so to have the opportunity to be in a film like that – and sci-fi, I love sci-fi – I couldn’t pass it up.
The second reason, which really sealed the deal, was that the film is co-written and directed by Shane Black of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang fame. He wrote Lethal Weapon. He wrote The Last Boy Scout. I mean, he invented the buddy cop film as we know it today. There was just no way I didn’t want to be involved with that genius.
The piece also offers some insight on his character and the crew of military dudes he belongs to:
Thomas Jane and I are ex-Marines and we are in a group with Boyd Holbrook, Trevante Rhodes and Alfie Allen. In the midst of this adventure, they adopt this scientist, Olivia Munn, who happens to be working on revolutionary tech and on finding alien life.
We become a kind of dirty half dozen of burned-out soldiers suffering from PTSD. Shane Black sent us a memo that was quite poetically written prior to shooting, and the gist of the memo was, “I want a bunch of knights – a bunch of knights who were rejects from the Round Table – knocking the rust off their armour and going back into battle.”
Though he’s getting deep into action for the film, Key notes that the movie’s really funny, too, which means he’ll be able to flex the muscles he’s already known for.
The Predator is set for a 13 September 2018 release.