Jason Statham became one of the biggest action stars in show business, but declined a deal to return to the Transporter franchise.
By Britta DeVore
| Published
Jason Statham cemented his action-hero reputation with 2002’s The Transporter, the film that would turn into a major fan-favorite franchise. Playing the role in the original film’s follow-ups, Transporter 2 and Transporter 3, which made their debuts in 2005 and 2008, respectively, it seemed like there was no other man able to fill in the shoes of the franchise’s leading character, Frank Martin. But, when the time came for another film to be made in 2015, Statham was nowhere to be found.
While he would ultimately be replaced by Game of Thrones actor, Ed Skrein, who played Daario Naharis in the third season of the fantasy hit, Jason Statham was given the chance to sit back down in the driver’s seat in the action-packed franchise but decided to pass it up. In an April 2015 interview with Vulture, the action star revealed that he didn’t return for several reasons – all of which are completely legit. For one thing, he said the offer for all three films was less than his usual pay for one. He was also being asked to commit to that three-movie deal without seeing a script. That’s a lot of bs to throw at someone who made the movies a hit in the first place.
The franchise continued with The Transporter Refueled in 2015, but its box-office numbers fell well short of Statham’s final installment. According to The Numbers, the reboot earned about $69.7 million worldwide, compared with $112.9 million for Transporter 3. The domestic gap was similarly pronounced: $16 million for Refueled against $31.7 million for its predecessor. Those figures don’t establish how much Statham’s absence affected ticket sales, but they show that continuing the series without its original star did not maintain the previous film’s theatrical momentum.
As humble and genuine as ever, Jason Statham did add that his time playing Frank Martin was “a great experience” and that he “would have loved to keep doing it.” But we absolutely understand why he called it quits. And, quite frankly, what a great decision on Statham’s part. While he had some other solid roles in films such as The Italian Job in between shooting The Transporter franchise, his career really took off after his final bow as Frank Martin.
In 2010, Jason Statham would land the role of Lee Christmas in The Expendables. The beginning of something truly beautiful for Statham and a slew of other action stars attached to the production, the action-packed series reached its fourth installment with Expend4bles in 2023. He’s also broken into another blockbuster juggernaut, Fast & Furious, where his character Deckard Shaw even nabbed his own spinoff feature, 2019’s Hobbs & Shaw, alongside fellow Fast star Dwayne Johnson. His subsequent projects have included Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and Meg 2: The Trench in 2023, followed by The Beekeeper in 2024.
At the end of the day, were we bummed to see Jason Statham turn down the opportunity to return to The Transporter franchise? Sure. But, like most things in life, when something isn’t the right fit for you, it’s probably because there’s something better just around the corner. As for Statham, his lengthy and celebrated career since Transporter 3 is proof of exactly that.
