Wrath of Man opens with an aerial view of an industrial area. It could be any city or any country (a marked break from the typical Guy Ritchie setting, which is always very culturally specific), giving viewers the sense that the location doesn’t matter much at all. In his third film in as many years, following his mercenary work directing Disney’s Aladdin and last year’s impressive return to British gangster comedy The Gentlemen, Ritchie is once again trying something different. This time, Jason Statham, the breakout star of Ritchie’s debut, 1998’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, is back in the lead.

In that film, Ritchie cast Statham, who had never acted before, on the strength of his background as a street seller. Statham recalled in 2015: