Yesterday the news dropped that Prime Video picked up Jake Gyllenhaal’s Road House reboot, and it rounded out its extensive ensemble cast to begin filming in the Dominican Republic next month. Well, it looks like some of the casting news wasn’t complete because the film has another new addition. Per Deadline, two-time UFC champion Conor McGregor will be making his acting debut in the reboot of the 1989 cult classic.
The exact details of who McGregor will be playing are unknown, but it does appear that he will play an original character and not himself in the film. The new take on the original follows a former UFC fighter, played by Gyllenhaal, who takes a job as a bouncer at a roadhouse in the Flordia Keys. “Soon, he discovers that not everything is what it seems in this tropical paradise.” McGregor joins a cast that includes Billy Magnussen, Daniela Melchior, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Lukas Gage, Hannah Love Lanier, Travis Van Winkle, B.K. Cannon, Arturo Castro, Dominique Columbus, Beau Knapp, and Bob Menery.
As a UFC fighter, Conor McGregor is a larger-than-life personality that Hollywood has been trying to get in business with for quite some time. McGregor wanted his first Hollywood role to be the right fit and didn’t want to jump on to just anything. According to Deadline, he heard there was an interest in casting him in the reboot, and he watched the original film for the first time and enjoyed it. McGregor met with producer Joel Silver and was all in on the new idea and direction that made it slightly different from the original movie. Throw in a pedigree like Jake Gyllenhaal and a director like Doug Liman, the idea became an easy sell for McGregor to get on board with.
Are YOU excited to see Conor McGregor join the Road House reboot?