‘Never Back Down: Revolt’ Coming Soon, Cast and Director Revealed

A new Never Back Down movie is on the way. According to Deadline, Kellie Madison will direct the fourth installment of the Never Back Down franchise, which is called Never Back Down: Revolt. The film will be produced by Mandalay Pictures, Wonder Street and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions. Production of Never Back Down: Revolt will start on Nov. 23 in London.

The film will focus on a woman (Olivia Popica) who is kidnapped and forced to compete in underground fights as she looks to escape. Never Back Down: Revolt also stars Michael Bisping, Brooke Johnston, Diana Hoyos, Neetu Chandra and James Faulkner. Popica is known for her role in the TV series Informer and made a brief appearance in the film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Bisping, a retired MMA fighter, is known for his role in the film Den of Thieves, and Johnson, who plays the antagonist in the film, was featured in Hurricane Heist.

Never Back Down was released in 2008 and stars Sean Faris, Amber Heard, Cam Gigandet and Djimon Hounsou. The film didn’t receive strong reviews but did earn $41.6 million at the box office. “I tested for it on the acting side four times, but then I had to go fight test for it, and then — the hardest test of all — was meeting with the executives and convincing and proving to them that I was the right guy for the role,” Faris said to MMA Junkine in a 2008 interview when asked how he got the role. “I definitely had to fight for it. The title (of the movie), “Never Back Down,” that’s why I got this role. I wouldn’t give up on it.”

Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown was released on DVD in 2011 and stars Michael Jai White who also directed the film. He also directed Never Back Down: No Surrender, which was released on DVD in 2016. In an interview with Shadow and Act, White explained why he wanted to direct the third Never Back Down film.

“Me being a person that has my feet in different worlds – director and marital artist, director and writer – gives me the advantage to execute this type of film well,” he said. “It’s very difficult to ask a writer to write about something they have no idea about…I have the experience to give audiences a truer glimpse of this particular world.”