Two-time Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou has often been spotlighted playing exotic roles has just joined the cast of the upcoming film, Tarzan.
The latest live-action version of the film will adapt Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1912 book Tarzan of the Apes but is rumored to pick up at a point well past Tarzan’s “origin story,” instead following the hero after having returned to and been assimilated by British civilization of the era. The action will then follow the Burroughs hero on a mission into the Congo under orders from Queen Victoria.
Hounsou will play Chief Mbonga, a character that appeared in a number of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ original stories. Alexander Skarsgård will star as the titular hero along with Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz.
David Yates will direct from a screenplay by Stephen Sommers and Stuart Beattie.
Hounsou can be next seen on the big screen as Korath the Pursuer in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
Tarzan is scheduled to hit theaters on July 1, 2016.