Nicolas Cage‘s return to his 20-year-old crime thriller role has received a major production update as a star from Top Gun joins the core cast. Cage’s best movies have featured numerous genres, from dramas to comedies and everything in between. One of his most famous is 2005’s Lord of War, which sees Cage as fearsome gunrunner Yuri Orlov.
According to a report from Variety, the sequel to Cage’s Lord of War, titled Lords of War, has added Top Gun: Maverick star Greg Tarzan Davis and Blade Runner 2049 star Sylvia Hoeks to its cast. Other, previously confirmed cast members include Cage, as well as Bill Skarsgård and Laura Harrier. Filming begins later this month in Belgium and Morocco.
Filmmaker Andrew Niccol, who wrote and directed the original, will helm the Lord of War sequel. The movie follows up on the original, showing the gunrunner going up against his son, Anton (Skarsgård). The younger Orlov is building a mercenary organization to fight in the Middle East, as he and his father compete for both power and the same love interest.
Davis joins the cast of Lords of War after having starred as Coyote in the Top Gun sequel, as well as Theo Degas in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning and Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning. As for Hoeks, her recent roles include Sister Agnieszka in the 2025 drama Mother and voicing Sigrid in Zack Snyder’s Twilight of the Gods TV show.
The original movie received mixed-to-positive reviews, holding a 62% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 148 reviews. While Lord of War isn’t based on a true story, it does pull inspiration from real-world arms trafficking, especially before and after the Soviet Union’s dissolution, when the movie takes place. Lords of War will seemingly pull from the US’ conflict in the Middle East.
While Davis and Hoeks’ roles haven’t been revealed yet, their contribution to the cast will no doubt have important implications for the conflict between Yuri and Anton. Given Anton’s attempt to break into the mercenary market, it seems the competition between father and son will be fierce, differentiated from his relationship with his brother, Vitaly (Jared Leto), in the original.
With the film going into production later this month, it may not be long before even more information about Lords of War gets revealed. Cage‘s return to his leading role, bolstered by so much talent from his fellow actors, indicates just how strong the film’s presentation will be — and how compelling its core conflict will become.
- Director
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Andrew Niccol
- Writers
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Andrew Niccol