Legendary martial arts superstar Jackie Chan (The Shadow’s Edge, The Foreigner) is returning to the Armour of God franchise with Salem Entertainment’s Armour of God 4: Ultimatum.
The upcoming film is directed by Kazakhstan’s Robert Kun, who is perhaps best known for his role as second unit director on Disney’s The Last Warrior franchise (2017-2021), as well as stunt/action choreography work on 2008’s Wanted, 2015’s I Am Dragon and 2024’s Major Grom: The Game. He trained under renowned Kazakh stunt coordinator Igor Tsay at Kun Do Studio, one of Kazakhstan’s top stunt and action training schools.
The film sees Jackie Chan return as Asian Hawk, who gets dragged back into the chaos when a global hunt begins for an ancient artifact called the Tumar, with more than $20 million up for grabs. Filming is scheduled to take place across Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
Starring alongside Chan are Hanzhi Xiang (A Little Mood for Love) and Kevin Ridger (Dongji Rescue).
It should be noted that the Kazakhstan-produced Armour of God 4: Ultimatum is the first in the franchise that’s not affiliated with a Chinese production company (the previous films were produced by Golden Harvest and Emperor Motion Pictures), which can possibly change in the course of its production roll out (there have been China-Kazakhstan co-productions, such as 2018’s Composer).
Producers Esmond Ren and Igor Tsay are attached to the project, which is backed by Alem Fund, an Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC)-registered fund created to back and raise the international profile of Kazakhstan-linked film and media projects. Armour of God IV: Ultimatum is the first title to go into production from the fund’s current portfolio of six projects (via Variety).
Chan told the same source: “This is my first project with Kazakh partners, but it will not be the last. We will be announcing much more soon. I have never filmed there before, and it opens up many new visual and creative ideas that we will be able to bring to audiences.”
The franchise – regarded as “Hong Kong’s answer to Indiana Jones” – started with 1986’s Armor of God, where Asian Hawk (Chan) embarks on a quest to recover mystical relics while battling a cult gang. The 1991 sequel, Armor of God II: Operation Condor (aka Operation Condor), has Hawk hitting the desert for Nazi gold. In 2012’s Armor of God III: Chinese Zodiac (aka Chinese Zodiac), Hawk hunts the stolen heads of China’s legendary zodiac statues.
Armour of God 4: Ultimatum is currently in production in Kazakhstan.
🔥 Footnote: The first Armor of God is notoriously known as “the film that nearly killed Jackie”. During the filming of the opening sequence, a scene called for Jackie to jump from a wall to a tree branch. In one of the takes, the branch broke, sending Jackie 5 metres to the ground, resulting in cracked skill with a piece of bone up into his brain (all of which can be seen in the film’s end-credit sequence).
As always, we’ll keep you updated on this project. Until then, check out an image of JC’s arrival (via AsatanaTimes), set photos, an announcement, and an interview with Kun followed by the Trailers to the original films:
First shot for a new promo with photographer Wang Chong (王冲) and the 2026 Asian Hawk aka Jackie Chan the Man himself (via jackiechan.de)
View this post on Instagram
From Alain Moussi’s instagram stories:
[Img]https://i.postimg.cc/dQ9LKP8d/20251007-082623.jpg[/img]
https://www.instagram.com/alainmoussi
I’m hoping this movie is actually good.
I, on the other hand, would suggest not getting your hopes up … I love Jackie’s classics movies (say, from Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow up to Drunken Master 2, or thereabouts) but it’s gotten to be kind of painful watching a 70 something Jackie Chan try to keep making action movies, aging is unavoidable, he should be starring in serious dramas now.
Agree, but there are a few movies that stand out pretty good in the later part of his career:
Shinjuku Incident:
https://cityonfire.com/shinjuku-incident-2008/
The Foreigner:
https://cityonfire.com/the-foreigner-2017-review-the-chinaman-jackie-chan-martin-campbell-pierce-brosnan/
The Shadow’s Edge:
https://cityonfire.com/the-shadows-edge-2025-review-jackie-chan-latest-new-movie-tony-leung-martial-arts-kung-fu-new-trailer/
And New police city, and Little big soldier.
I’ve read it won’t happe, it was just a publicity “stunt”.
https://celestial-empire.fr/armour-of-god-4-un-projet-kazakh-sous-haute-confusion/
few years ago watched all 3 very good films and the car in number 2 had unique door opening. if people are upset over watching jackie chan with negative comments about, you can watch something else. as long as done in china will be good. i hate jackie films in usa they are not as good as the chinese stuff. plus usa pairs him with someone as they believe asian actor cant be leading man i read. lets think now how in each film they give him a usa comedy actor. lee evans british comedian, johnny knoxville, owen wilson, chris tucker, the awful john cena. i know that jackie would not be saying in china i cant wait to do a usa film but who is chris tucker i heard he was in a film called friday but the usa film people said i have to work with him. jackie has to work harder not only to fight the enemy but help the comedian actor who has no fighting skills avoid a beating. will we see the usual shaking of hands jackie does in his films when someone kicks them or not lol, in shadows edge which was a very good film no comedy no shaking hands in pain just a serious film set in china with chinese actors, this is why it did well. same as my korean shows i want to see koreans in it not other people unless small parts by unknown foreigners. when people worried about jackie age dont be i have seen a 74 year old person play basketball in china online running jumping and spinning in the year playing with other ages. i seen men in 90s exercising and doing things. dont be fooled of tv and films showing a certain age bent backed with lots of heart attacks through the day or walking round in a dressing gown lost outside. remember people reading when you get to 70 do you want to say hang on its not like i thought it would be i can walk talk and still do things.
My only expectation for this movie is I want to see Jackie do that thing with his chewing gum. And also Maybe bring back Shu Qi for a cameo so there’s some continuity with Part 3.
Was he not chewing gum in part 3? I can’t remember ANYTHING about that movie. All I remember is it having too many characters.
Armour of God 3 was like Jackie Chan’s Disclosure Day. Like Steven Spielberg, he stopped knowing how to make good movies. In his defense, his style worked better in HK action movies of the 80s. Did JC direct anything in the 90s other than part of Drunken Master II?
Yep the chewing gum part in CZ12 is the only concrete link to parts 1 and 2. In the Cantonese versions of Parts 1 and 2 his name is Jackie or the Asian Hawk but in part 3 his name is JC. Its not a great movie, pretty terrible in fact but it does have a hint of half decent final battle at the end.
As for Spielberg his last good movie was Munich. More topical now than ever and I think it still holds up despite what one thinks about Israel. After he made the godawful Ready Player One I knew there was no coming back for Spielberg. At least we got one more meme out of it. Ohh you’re so pretty even with that birthmark . Almost as godtier as Shes All That with our protaganist being ugly cos she wears glasses!!!
Jackie co-directed Who Am I but apart from the last action seqeunce on top of the building theres very little director magic from both the Chans here. Did you buy the Arrow boxset? Whatever you think fo the movies themselves, the new transfers really help you appreciate the cimematography, even the Stanley Tong efforts. Who am I , however, looks like a DTV movie. Those other movies look like movies wheras Who Am I looks Netflix. Flat color grading, no depth to the image, boring compositions.
“part of Drunken Master II ?”
About 80% of it.
After Operation condor, producers forbade Jackie Chan to direct movies…and kinda killed him artistically.
If you read Jet Li’s new book, it’s interesting that he has nothing negative to say about anyone in his entire career…except for Lau Kar Leung. Apparently working on Martial Arts of Shaolin was the worst experience of his life, and he nearly died in the 2004 Maldives typhoon, and suffers from ongoing thyroid issues. Makes you rethink Jackie’s drama…maybe LKL, aside from being a talented exponent of kung fu, was also just a wee bit of a dick.
As for Jackie, we’ll still show up for him no matter what he puts out.
Hmmm—-I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the only person Jet Li has anything negative to say about in his book just happens to be deceased. It’s long been known that he and LKL had issues on the set on Martial Arts of Shaolin (which is a great kf film, btw) but yet he’s never actually spelled out exactly what those issues were. Even Jackie, who has issues with LKL on the set of Drunken Master II, never actually came out and bashed him—he said that they just had some disagreements as to where the film was going.
His new autobiography spells it out in more detail. Essentially, there were issues with both culture clashes and personal conflict. Jet talks about how the HK crew were paid exponentially more than the Mainland team, and how the HK team treated the Mainlanders like third-class citizens. Even Jet made less than some of the HK extras IIRC. He also talked about how LKL would disrespect them by having them wake up early in the morning to prep for a sunrise shot, only to actually show up on set at 10am.
I’ve always wondered why Jet Li had only one director’s credit – in his book, he said it was a form of emotional catharsis for him, to vent his frustration at how he and his team were treated, and to finally have some control over his life and career. Apparently he was so frustrated with LKL that he threatened to quit movies altogether, and the producers offered him the opportunity to direct Born as an inducement to stay.
As you said, he’s likely only coming out with this because LKL has passed. Makes you wonder what kind of behind the scenes drama across the HK film scene could come out one day once enough time and players have passed.
“Jet talks about how the HK crew were paid exponentially more than the Mainland team, and how the HK team treated the Mainlanders like third-class citizens.”
This is still the norm among some Hong Kong people appararently. Mainland Chinese are still referred to as uncouth barbarians or locusts who don’t speak the local language or know the social norms of a civilised society. Of course some Mainlanders view the HK people as colonial lapdogs who can’t even communicate properly outside their city. Who on this website can give us better insight/deep dive into the HK/China divide?
The plural of anecdote is not data, but based on my experiences interacting with both groups, the younger generation of HK-ers is navigating the divide far more gracefully than the older generations. Many younger Millennial HK-ers are fully fluent in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin, and they feel a keen sense of pan-Chinese pride coupled with a love of the distinct HK identity. The loudest voices online who advocate division and disunity really don’t reflect the reality on the ground – another case where the internet isn’t real life. To be fair, there’s far more interchange between HK and the Mainland today, as opposed to the colonial era, when there was a very stark contrast in terms of both governance and standard of living.
Watch any 80s HK movie, and the quality of life is very relatable to us – cars, office jobs, shopping malls, eating out at restaurants, all the modern conveniences. Compare that against Mainland China in the 80s, a country emerging from a wartorn, agrarian past, with poverty, bicycles and Mao suits, where ownership of a radio or TV was a major life achievement. Perhaps it’s only natural that HK Chinese would view Mainlanders as their poor, unsophisticated cousins, while many Mainlanders envied the quality of life of the HK-ers while resenting their supercilious attitude.
Today, it’s entirely different – Mainland China is prosperous and thriving, and the younger generation has only ever known safety, security, and success. China has surpassed HK in a very short period of time, which has understandably left many HK-ers unsettled.
As for the locusts comment – much of that is online froth, but many older generations of Mainlanders did have money while lacking in social graces (and to be fair, much the same was once true of HK). The young generation of both HK-ers and Mainlanders today are well-educated, well-socialised and well-mannered – a huge and frankly welcome change.
Thanks, this is a really well written and easy to understand summation. As you could easily tell my comments were from the Hongkong subreddit.
I also visit China occasionally for work, on the social norms its still a culture shock for someone based in the UK even in 2026. Queuing apparently is optional. saying thanks and please is also quite rare and depending if you smoke or not, China is literally heaven or hell.
I can’t really add anything to the debate but i will say this because I have encountered some of the HK people who relocated to the UK on the BNO visa. A Reform voter isnt going to ask you which dialect of Chinese you speak or if you have a British passport or vibe check you on the Taiwan issue before they kick your head in.
This is second hand information from an introduction to ‘Martial Arts of Shaolin’ that was recently screened in New York, but if it’s true then I’m sure Jet Li would have considered it karma. Apparently since the Shaw Brothers shut down their film division while the production was still filming on the Mainland, and nobody was aware Lau Kar-Leung and crew had only booked one-way tickets due to not having a specific return date, they were essentially left stranded in China, and had to self fund their way back to Hong Kong!
Did Jet refer to this journey back home as Lau’s Long March? Be pretty funny if he did.
That’s messed up, given that LKL was one of Shaw’s top directors. Sucks to hear that LKL and his crew, according to Jet Li, just straight-up disrespected them the whole time they were there. I’m guessing LKL probably regretted that when Li blew up in H.K. in the Once Upon A Time In China series.
Speaking of Lau Kar Leung and regret…..has anyone watched Drunken Master 3? LOL its almost in the so bad its good territory.
What happened here? None of the action looks like it was directed by him, the production value is so low it makes Drunken Monkey look like Crouching Tiger and Hero. It somehow has peak 90s era Andy Lau and Michelle Reis and still somehow the movie is boring AF. And worse of all Wong Fei Hung is played by an actor that somehow looks young but also balding at the same time. And he skates on an abacus!!! If I was Lau i would have taken my name off this movie, it really is a shitstain on an otherwise impeccable filmography.
Probably an important lesson to never make a film out of spite. After Kar-Leung departed from ‘Drunken Master II’ mid-filming on somewhat bitter terms, he decided to create his own DM movie, rushing an unrelated third entry into production – so rushed that it opened in Hong Kong cinemas just 5 months later (DM II opened in Feb ’94, while DM III opened in Jul ’94).
Intended as a “this is what a real kung-fu movie should look like” compared to the bombast JC created for the DM II finale, it’s safe to say it completely missed the mark. Willie Chi had impressed with his debut role as Fong Sai Yuk in Ringo Lam’s ‘Burning Paradise’ from earlier in the same year, but after starring in this disaster he’d only clock in a couple more credits in low budget kiddie kung-fu movies and disappear.
Jackie Chan is a legend, nobody needs to moan wbout him making movies alright people, regardless of his age o.k. Stallone, Schwarzengger, Tom Cruise, Jason Statham and others could only wish to have Chan’s conditioning and durability of these long decades in the film industry and be nearly as great and fantastically; incredible as a martial artist!!!
No, we’ll perhaps never see Chan, be as incredible in his youth in his movies like; Dunken Master II, Meals on Wheels, Police Story, Dragons Forever or Young Master i.e. big end fights battles with the major villains etc’s. But his Armor Of God films are, basically his Asian Indiana Jones franchise. Akin to his animated series Jackie Chan adventures, Chan’s at his best in sdventure movies akin to his Asian Hawk role!
I hope Jackie during production on his fourth Armor of God film, gets the producers to also write and produce a fifth film and end the series altogether! I.E. have this film shot back-to-back with a 5th movie. A fifth film, chasing after the Gold in possibly; Atlantis or Lemuria!!! Cast a major Martial Artist as the antagonist (Donnie Yen or Luke Goss) and have Jackie struggle throughout the film in epic fights. Attached to the storyline in the movie against a larger than life villain!
Nuff said!
You’re not wrong. I think a lot of us just wish he could make better use of the limited years he has left to choose better projects. The much maligned Lo Wei years, in retrospect, are miles ahead of the really terrible films he’s made in the last two decades (Kung Fu Yoga, Spy Next Door, Vanguard, Legend, Dragon Blade, Bleeding Steel, Hidden Strike, Panda Plan, Knight of Shadows, Rush Hour 3). Give me Magnificent Bodyguards any day over all that.
The rest have been fair to middling (Skiptrace, Karate Kid, Ride On, Railroad Tigers, Forbidden Kingdom, Little Big Soldier, CZ12, Police Story 2013), with only two quality films (Foreigner, Shadow’s Edge) and one classic from way back in 2006 (Rob-B-Hood). At least CZ12 had the incredible fight scene at the end that stands equal to any of his classics, but the rest of the film dragged.
That’s twenty years of one of the greatest stars, actors, directors, choreographers of literally all time, wasting his talents in dreck that’s beneath him. As Jackie stans, we just want him to appear in films that are worthy of his talents, especially since the clock is ticking…
Finally someone who recognises that Rob B Hood is a masterpeice on an English language forum. I realise this is an action movie place but the lack of love for Michael Hui is concerning when it could be argued that he walked so that Stephen Chow could run.
Amen! Michael Hui’s been getting quite the renaissance in recent years, especially with his performance in The Last Dance, which was deservedly praised. I’d love to see Stephen Chow do something similar and come back and deliver a powerful dramatic performance in his golden years – The King of Comedy proved he more than has the chops for it.
The Last Dance was so good. Everyone was firing on all cylinders even the guy who played Michael Hui’s son who usually plays the broadest character of any movie he is usually in. If anything Dayo Wong let his co-stars shine and the movie is all the better for it. Michelle Wai almost outshines everyone. The biggest box office domestic movie of all time and well deserved.
and like you say ideally Chow should be looking forward in his career and make an acting comeback that will wow all of us again but he seems to be trapped in time circa 1999-2004.
I’m not sure I’d call ‘Rob-B-Hood’ a classic, but it definitely falls into Jackie Chan’s “enjoyable 2000’s HK” era. Michael Hui here kind of feels like he’s taking on the same role as Takeshi Kaneshiro in Sammo’s ‘Don’t Give a Damn’. In that movie Kaneshiro took on the role intended for Chan, while here Hui’s role feels like it’s standing in for a role intended for Sammo. No complaints through from a movie that gives us one of HK’s biggest action talents teaming up with one of HK’s biggest comedic talents.
The only downside of ‘Rob-B-Hood’ is that tagged on ending – I’ll always remember it as the first movie where I noticeably recognized scenes had been added so that it could be screened on the Mainland, with the whole staged prison execution sequence feeling superfluous.
Agreed. For me, the quality of Jackie’s filmography keeps getting reassessed with hindsight. Like the Lo Wei films, which I didn’t care for as a teen discovering them during his 90s US box office run, but which I appreciate in retrospect in the context of Shaw Bros and 70s period wuxia/kung fu films. Rob-B-Hood and New Police Story feel to me like the last gasps of pure Jackie Chan energy before age and bad movie choices tarnished the luster of his later filmography. Back then I would have rated those two films as slightly above average – compared to his recent releases, I see them as stone cold classics.
My OCD hates that if you file Jackie’s Hong Kong filmography in chronological order, The Myth sits right between New Police Story and Rob B Hood. Imagine if Chan made a different miuch better 2005 movie that was as good as the other 2 and then you’d have that back to back to back underrated classics in the noughties which would nicely balance out the crap trilogy that is The Tuxedo, The Medallion and Around the world in 80 Days.
Didn’t care much for The Myth upon its release (except for the factory fight scene) but it’s pretty good compared to the sequels that came after (the execrable Kung Fu Yoga and the soporific A Legend).
I will not stand for this Tuxedo erasure, sir! Actually, I thought it was pretty fun the first time around, and Jennifer Love Hewitt is always appealing, no matter how hard they tried to make her character otherwise. Jackie’s lovable everyman persona really shone through, and the high-concept of the tuxedo was novel, plus it gave us cinematic gold with Jackie doing an amazing James Brown-esque performance, dancing, singing, and shimmying as “The Last Emperor of Soul!”
I think everyone who grew up watching Party of Five loved JLH in I knew what you did last Summer and the underrated and underappreciated Can’t Hardly Wait. She even held her own opposite Sigourney Weaver and Gene Hackman in Heartbreakers. But didn’t The Tuxedo kill off her movie career? For that reason alone this movie should never have been made!
Audiences in 2002 – “A gadget filled tuxedo, this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Audiences watching Keanu Reeves buy a kevlar tuxedo in JW2 – “Ok I take it back.”
LOL.
That move that John Wick does to cover his head when people trying to shoot him is a move that I should have trademarked back in late 90s. Its definitely giving off “who reheated some fish in the office microwave” vibes
I feel like the one two punch of Tuxedo and Garfield probably didn’t do many favors for her film career and sent her scurrying back to TV. She’s a great actress and seems like a decent human being, for a Hollywood person. After Armour of God 4, I say we start a COF petition for The Tuxedo 2! Now that Jackie’s old, the special effects angle is much more necessary and explicable than ever.
It would be hilarious if we got The Tuxedo 2 before we got Pattinsons The Batman Part 2
Time to retire!!!
At least he stepped away from the director chair. He directed the first three.