Borderlands movie gets its Atlas in The Undoing actor Edgar Ramirez

Eli Roth’s adaption of the best-selling videogame, Borderlands, has added actor Edgar Ramirez to play Atlas. Ramirez joins an already star-studded cast including Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Haley Bennett, and Jack Black. 

In the Borderlands videogame, Atlas is a business titan and arms manufacturer, and the most powerful person in the universe. Roth, director of the Borderlands movie, believes Ramirez is the perfect actor for the role. "What an incredible honor to have an actor of Edgar’s caliber, talent, and charisma playing opposite Cate Blanchett and this remarkable cast," Roth said in an exclusive with Deadline, who was first to report the casting news. 

The Borderlands director then went on to say, "Atlas has to be a truly magnetic personality, someone with charisma and charm but that air of menace underneath it all. I’ve been a fan of Edgar’s since his early performances and he continues to amaze me with each dramatic turn. We want to create something wild, fun, and very different from anything they’ve seen from Edgar before. I am so, so excited to work with him."

The latest draft of the Borderlands screenplay is by HBO series Chernobyl writer Craig Mazin. We know so far the movie plot involves Lilith (Blanchett), an infamous outlaw with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the universe’s most powerful S.O.B., Atlas (Ramirez). Lilith allies with an unexpected team – Roland (Hart), a former elite mercenary, now desperate for redemption; Tiny Tina (Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector; Tannis (Curtis), the scientist with a tenuous grip on sanity; and Claptrap (Black), a persistent wiseass robot. These unlikely heroes will be forced to battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power. 

The news of Ramirez casting comes at a busy time for the actor. He has stayed active over the past year, most recently starring opposite Jennifer Garner in Netflix’s Yes Day. He also recently seen in HBO’s limited series The Undoing. He will next star in Disney’s Jungle Cruise and Universal’s The 355.

There is no official release date yet for Borderlands, but you can check out our list of best videogame movies as the news continues to develop.