Ethan Hawke Joining Rihanna and Cara Delavingne in Luc Besson's Sci-Fi Epic 'Valerian' in 2017

Luc Besson posted on Instagram that Ethan Hawke, currently filming in The Magnificent Seven reboot, will be joining the cast of the upcoming 2017 sci-fi epic Valerian alongside stars Rihanna and Cara Delavingne (Enchantress from Suicide Squad).

Luc Besson, likened to the "French equivalent of Steven Spielberg" and responsible for films like The Fifth Element, The Transporter, and more recently Lucy, announced to world that Ethan Hawke will be joining the cast of Valerian on his Instagram feed with "Ethan Hawke will play in #Valerian! I want to work with for years! We gonna have fun!!!"

Hawke joins a cast of star including Rihanna, Dane DeHaan, and Cara Delavinge. The latter two will be playing the protagonists of the story, Valerian and Laureline. The two characters are from an old French graphic novel series, Valérian and Laureline, who are "a pair of spatio-temporal agents who help defend an utopian 28th century Earth and its neighboring planets from bad guys, with the pair's adventures rooted in space opera and time travel themes." There are only going to be a few humans in the movie, as in most of the characters will be aliens. In fact, "Besson has 2,370 planned." Whether or not Hawke and Rihanna are human is unknown, as their roles have yet to be determined so far, or at least released to us.

And Hawke should be an excellent addition to the cast. He's played in a few different science fiction roles, none of which fit the more common expectations, such as Gattaca or The Purge (which I mention only for its unique societal aspect).

It will be interesting to see what direction Besson takes Valerian, as the series it is based on ran for over 40 years and has a lot to draw on.

So what are your thoughts on this upcoming sci-fi epic? Tell us in the comments section below!