Jason Statham led the UK premiere of Shelter, Ric Roman Waugh’s thriller of a former assassin on a Hebridean island, in Leicester Square.
Jason Statham led the UK premiere of Shelter at Cineworld Leicester Square on Tuesday 20 January 2026, ten days before Ric Roman Waugh’s action thriller opened in British and American cinemas.
Statham was born in Shirebrook in 1967 and grew up practising martial arts and kickboxing while working on market stalls. He dived for Great Britain and competed for England at the 1990 Commonwealth Games, then modelled for French Connection, Tommy Hilfiger and Levi’s. His years on the stalls led Guy Ritchie to cast him in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in 1998 and then in Snatch, and the films he has appeared in since have grossed more than $6 billion worldwide.
Waugh, a former stuntman and the son of the stuntman Fred Waugh, who went on to direct Angel Has Fallen and Greenland, made the film from a script by Ward Parry. Statham plays Michael Mason, a former MI6 assassin living alone on an island in the Outer Hebrides. When a storm throws a teenage girl into the sea, he rescues her, and protecting her draws him back into conflict with the agency determined to eliminate him. Bill Nighy, Naomi Ackie and Daniel Mays complete the cast.
Bodhi Rae Breathnach, who plays the girl, Jessie, joined Statham and Waugh on the carpet in Leicester Square. Richard E. Grant was among the guests.