Where You’ve Seen The Actors Before

The cast of The Meg was a big reason for the shark movie’s box office success when it was released back in 2018. A loose adaptation of the book, Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten, the film follows a group of scientists who encounter a 75-foot-long Megalodon shark while on a rescue mission to save a trapped research station called the Mana. Posing a threat to both the scientists and the people on land, Jason Statham’s Jonas Taylor and his team must face off against this gigantic beast in a confrontation that is equally silly and entertaining.

At the time, The Meg was the most expensive shark movie ever made (via THR). While the film received mixed reviews, that investment paid off as it earned $529 million at the box office (via Box Office Mojo), a large part of that coming China, where the film is most popular. This success eventually spawned a 2023 sequel, and Meg 2: The Trench has succeeded at the box office, grossing $53 million in Chinese markets. Several cast members of The Meg returned for the sequel, and there’s every chance they will for a potential The Meg 3.

Jason Statham As Jonas Taylor

Date Of Birth: July 26, 1967

Actor: Jason Statham began his career as a model for French Connection but quickly broke into film when he was cast as Bacon in Guy Ritchie’s 1998 film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. This partnership proved fruitful, as later on, Statham and Ritchie collaborated on more films like Snatch, Wrath of Man, and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre. Statham has become an A-list action movie star, featuring in various films like Crank, the first three Transporter films, The Expendables franchise, and the Fast and Furious series.

Character: In The Meg, Jason Statham plays Jonas Taylor, a deep-sea diver who leads the search and rescue mission. He had initially retired from his job as a deep sea rescue expert after losing people due to what he called an attack by an unknown massive sea creature. It turns out it might have been a similar megalodon as the one that has returned when he is called in to help save a new team trapped at the bottom of the ocean, which includes his ex, Lori.

Li Bingbing As Suyin

Date Of Birth: February 27, 1973

Actor: Li is a Chinese actress and singer who first came to prominence when she played Chen Jie in the 1999 film, Seventeen Years. Li has since become a major movie star in China, even co-starring and co-producing a film called 1911 with legendary action star, Jackie Chan. However, she has also found massive success within Hollywood as well. She first gained recognition among Western audiences when she starred in Resident Evil: Retribution, playing Ada Wong. She also starred in Transformers: Age of Extinction, the fourth installment in the Transformers franchise.

Character: Li Bingbing plays Suyin, an oceanographer aboard the Mana. She is the daughter of the main oceanographic researcher who is leading research development in Mana. She also has a daughter of her own at the research facility in Meiying. While a mother, she is also impulsive and has no problem heading into danger to save her people and taking the fight to the Meg in this film. She is also Jonas’s romantic interest in the film, although Li Bingbing does not return for the sequel.

Rainn Wilson As Jack Morris

Date Of Birth: January 20, 1966

Actor: Rainn Wilson debuted in the film Galaxy Quest, in which he played Lahnk, a Thermian. Wilson’s most iconic character is the job-obsessed Dwight Schrute from The Office, a role that earned him three Emmy nominations and two SAG awards for Best Comedy Ensemble. Aside from The Office, Wilson has also starred in a number of critically acclaimed films and cult classics like Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous, Steven Soderbergh’s Full Frontal, Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses, and James Gunn’s Super.

Character: Rainn Wilson plays Jack Morris, a billionaire who funded the Mana. He arrives at the station around the same time that the submarine gets stranded at the bottom of the ocean. While he seems excited about the prospects, he soon shows that he cares more about his financial stake and in keeping things quiet when the Meg shows up and attacks. This leads him to become a slight antagonist and one who pays for his greed when the Meg comes for him.

Cliff Curtis As Mac

Date Of Birth: July 27, 1968

Actor: Cliff Curtis’s first feature film role was a small part, ironically named Mana, in Jane Campion’s The Piano, but he came to prominence with the drama film, One Were Warriors. He has also appeared in various critically acclaimed films like Three Kings, Training Day, Whale Rider, Sunshine, and Doctor Sleep. His most recent role was in James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water, in which he played Tonowari, the leader of the Metakayina clan, and will reprise his role in the upcoming Avatar 3.

Character: Cliff Curtis plays James “Mac” Mackreides, the managing researcher of the Mana. He is Jonas’s closest friend and the only person that Jonas really trusts when he agrees to come help rescue the stranded submarine. Mac is also someone who is willing to put his own life on the line to help save his colleagues when the Meg starts to attack. Mac also returns in the sequel, Meg 2: The Trench.

Winston Chao As Zhang

Date Of Birth: June 9, 1960

Actor: Winston Chao is a critically acclaimed Taiwanese actor who first came to international attention for his performance as Wai-Tung Gao in the 1993 film, The Wedding Banquet. Chao also appeared in films like Stanley Kwan’s Red Rose White Rose and Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Woman. While Chao has not appeared in many American productions, he has starred in one other English-language film called Skiptrace, a buddy cop action-comedy film starring Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville.

Character: Winston Chao plays Minway Zhang, Sunyin’s father and a well-regarded oceanographic researcher leading research development in the Mana. While Jack Morris is financing the research, Zhang is much more concerned about what they are finding and about protecting the order of things in the oceanic universe. He is also very protective of his daughter and granddaughter and fights to do what he can to keep his entire crew safe.

Sophia Cai As Meiying

Date Of Birth: April 22, 2008

Actor: Sophia Cai began her career at the age of two after being cast in a national TV commercial, and since has worked as both a professional actress and model. She reprised her role as Meiying in the cast of Meg 2: The Trench, and besides the shark franchise, she is best known for her performance as Ni Ni in the Chinese film, Somewhere Only We Know.

Character: Sophia Cai plays Meiying, Sunyin’s eight-year-old daughter, and Zhang’s granddaughter, who lives aboard the Mana. She was mostly used for comedic effect in the movie as she was there to tease Jonas about his feelings towards her mother, although she did have some more serious moments after her grandfather’s death. She was 15 when she returned for Meg 2: The Trench, and had a much more difficult character arc as her mother died between the two movies.

Ruby Rose As Jaxx

Date Of Birth: March 20, 1986

Actor: Rose began her career as a presenter on MTV Australia and as a high-profile model. She made her acting debut as Hannah in the film Around the Block, but she quickly received wide attention when she starred in season 3 of Orange Is The New Black as Stella Carlin. Since then, she has appeared in several big-budget action films like Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, XXX: Return of Xander Cage, and John Wick: Chapter 2. She also played Kate Kane/Batwoman in the first season of the CW TV series Batwoman.

Character: Ruby Rose plays Jaxx, an engineer working aboard the Mana. Jaxx is someone that the team found after she had operated illegally as a hacker for a period of time, a fact that made billionaire Jack Morris accept her on the team even more. She is also someone who has a close, almost father-daughter relationship with the doctor on the research station, Heller.

Page Kennedy As DJ

Date Of Birth: November 23, 1976

Actor: Page Kennedy first broke into the industry when he guest starred on several shows like Six Feet Under, NYPD Blue, The Shield, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. However, Kennedy is best known for portraying Radon Randell in the Spike sports comedy series Blue Mountain State and U-Turn in the Showtime series Weeds, in which he originally starred as a guest actor but quickly joined the cast in the second and third seasons.

Character: Page Kennedy plays DJ, another engineer working aboard the Mana. DJ is someone who is at the research station to work, but he has a fear of the water and doesn’t know how to swim. He is often a comedic character as he is scared when near the water, making Jack Morris wonder why he chose this specific job in the middle of the ocean. He is also one of the only members of the research team who returned for Meg 2: The Trench, and he was the one who prepared the most for another possible attack.

Robert Taylor As Heller

Date Of Birth: 1963

Actor: An Australian actor, Robert Taylor has appeared in a number of films and TV series produced in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. On TV, he is best known for playing the lead role of Walt Longmire in the A&E/Netflix series Longmire, and in film, he is best known for playing Agent Jones in The Matrix. He also appeared in Kong: Skull Island and began starring in the prequel series NCIS: Origins as Jackson Gibbs, Leroy Jethro Gibbs’s father.

Character: Robert Taylor plays Dr. Heller, a medical doctor aboard the Mana. Heller is a minor antagonist in the film, as he was working with Jonas when he failed to save some people on an earlier rescue mission. Heller never believed Jonas when he said there was something big down there with them and always blamed him for being a coward and leaving men behind. This made him the one voice who didn’t want Jonas there on this rescue mission.

Jessica McNamee As Lori Taylor

Date Of Birth: June 16, 1988

Actor: Jessica McNamee gained prominence when she appeared in the Australian TV programs, Home and Away and Packed to the Rafters, and she has since appeared in a number of American film productions such as The Vow, Chips, Battle of the Sexes, and Mortal Kombat in which she played Sonya Blade. McNamee will reprise her role in the cast of Mortal Kombat 2. She also had a main role in the American comedy series Sirens in 2014.

Character: Jessica McNamee plays Lori Taylor, a diver and submarine pilot aboard the Mana and the ex-wife of Jonas. Lori was part of the crew trying to break through the ocean depths and ended up stranded at the bottom with no way up when the Meg attacked her sub. She is why Jonas agreed to come out of retirement to help rescue the sub since he wasn’t going to let his ex-wife die down there.

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson As “The Wall”

Date Of Birth: March 3, 1973

Actor: Ólafur Darri Ólafsson is best known for his performance as Andri, the Icelandic chief of police in the series Trapped. Additionally, he has appeared in several American productions, such as the American comedy series Lady Dynamite and the Ben Stiller-directed comedy-drama The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. He also had a role in the Will Ferrell comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga and in the dark comedy The Tourist, which aired in the U.S. on Max.

Character: Ólafur Darri Ólafsson plays “The Wall,” a member of Lori Taylor’s crew. He was on the sub with Lori when it was trapped at the bottom of the ocean and was on the receiving end of the first Meg attack. Jonas was able to save Lori and The Wall, though, and he was there to help out when the team decided to track down the Meg and kill it. Sadly, The Wall didn’t have a happy ending, but he was one of the more entertaining characters before his demise.

Masi Oka As Toshi

Date Of Birth: December 27, 1974

Actor: Originally joining the film industry as a special effects artist at George Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic, Masi Oka transitioned into acting in the early 2000s where he landed several minor roles in film and TV such as Austin Powers in Goldmember and Yes, Dear before eventually earning a five-episode role on NBC’s Scrubs. He is best known for playing Hiro Nakamura in NBC’s Heroes and Dr. Max Bergman in CBS’s Hawaii Five-0.

Character: Masi Oka plays Toshi, a member of Lori Taylor’s crew, in the cast of The Meg. He was on the sub at the bottom of the ocean when the Meg first attacked them. However, he was not someone who was able to make it out of that situation alive. While Jonas got down there to rescue them, a new attack by the prehistoric shark caused a rupture and Toshi sacrificed himself to make sure The Wall and Lori were able to escape and make it back alive.