Vin Diesel is set to star as Bloodshot for Sony Pictures, alongside Eiza Gonzalez (Baby Driver), Michael Sheen (Underworld) and Outlander’s Sam Heughan.

Diesel will star as Angelo Mortalli, a ruthless killer for the mob who is set up by the family and framed for a murder. He instead goes into Witness Protection but is betrayed by an FBI agent guarding him, kidnapped and forcibly subjected to an experimental program in which his body is injected with microscopic computers called nanites. They erase his brain and rebuild it and his body to be a weapon with superhuman strength and healing powers. The character was created by Kevin Van Hook, Don Perlin, and Bob Layton in 1992.

Now, sources tell Key Collector Comics (available on iTunes and Google Play) that there will be two villains in the film, one of which is the infamous Ax, who made his first appearance in Valiant’s “Harbinger” #3.

Here’s how Fandom describes him:

“Buford – or Ax – is an obnoxious self-professed computer wizard with a natural affinity for electronics.”

“When Pete Stanchek, a psionic of extraordinary power and the leader of the Harbinger Resistance, a loose organization of renegades, activates his ability to communicate with computers, Ax becomes one of the most dangerous individuals in the world, and soon graduates from taking money from ATMs to hacking into financial institution computers.

“Power-hungry, Ax craves new technologies like the Manowar Class Armor and the nanites developed at Project Rising Spirit, a thirst that leads him to challenge such heroes as Aric Dacia and Bloodshot, who possess what he desires. Ax’s unwavering pursuit makes him the stuff of legend when he kills Bloodshot and takes his blood, the mythical Blood of Heroes.”

Bloodshot, which marks Diesel’s first superhero film, starts production in July with Dave Wilson directing and Neal H. Moritz producing.

Wilson is a director at Blur Studios, the VFX factory owned by Tim Miller, who directed the first Deadpool and is reviving the Terminator franchise. Sony is hoping to launch a franchise here through the Bloodshot comic universe.

Bloodshot is written by Eric Heiserer and Toby Jaffe and produced by Dinesh Shamdasani.