Meg 2: The Trench is the sequel to the unexpected 2018 hit The Meg which saw Jason Statham take on a 75-foot-long shark.

Grossing over half a billion dollars worldwide, The Meg was the best solo performing film of Statham's career and was also a big hit in China.

Thanks to the success of the first film, a sequel was greenlit shortly after its release and confirmed in 2020 meaning Jason Statham will be fighting sharks once again.

Read more: Jason Statham fights the Meg on a jet ski in first footage for The Meg 2: The Trench (Cinemablend, 3 min read)

Hitting cinemas worldwide on 4 August, read on below for everything we know about Meg 2: The Trench.

Meg 2: The Trench release date

Meg 2: The Trench is confirmed to be released on 4 August. Despite featuring China's biggest star in Wu Jing, the film does not currently have a release date in the country.

Meg 2: The Trench plot

While no official synopsis has been released, The Meg 2 is based on the novel The Trench by Steve Allen which continues the adventures of Jonas, a paleobiologist who had to defeat a megalodon.

Read more: The Meg defies box office expectations

In the book, he discovers another prehistoric monster called a Kronosaurus which was thought extinct which he must battle and defeat.

Meg 2: The Trench cast

Jason Statham returns as hero Jonas Taylor in a role that makes use of his diving background and is one of the four movies he has coming out this year along with Operation Fortune, Fast X and The Expendables 4.

Also returning from the first film is Cliff Curtis (who also starred alongside Statham in Hobbs and Shaw), and Page Kennedy while Li Bingbing who played a female oceanographer is not rejoining the rest of the cast.

The biggest addition to the movie is Wu Jing, the highest grossing actor of all time in China. The action hero is best known for his performances in the Wolf Warrior movies and a string of recent hits including The Battle at Lake Changjin, The Battle at Lake Changjin II and The Wandering Earth 2 which are among the highest grossing films of all time.

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Resident Evil and Luther actor Sienna Guillory has also joined the cast in an unknown role.

Meg 2: The Trench director

While National Treasure director Jon Turteltaub was behind the camera on the first film, he has been replaced by Britain's own Ben Wheatley for the sequel.

Wheatley is best known for his low budget genre movies such as Sightseers and Kill List but also directed the Rebecca remake for Netflix and the action film Free Fire.

Meg 2: The Trench trailer

The official trailer for Meg 2 was released on Monday, 8 May and it gave fans their first look at the next chapter in the franchise, including the deadliest megalodon yet.

From the looks of the teaser clip, Jonas Taylor and his team will have a difficult job on their hand trying to contain not one but multiple megalodons, which have resurfaced from deep within the ocean and are now a threat to all of mankind.

Watch the trailer for Meg 2: The Trench below