Interestingly, Akshay won’t join the Golmaal gang so to say, which already consists of Devgn, Arshad Warsi (Akshay’s Jolly LLB co-star), Kunal Kemmu, Tusshar Kapoor, and Shreyas Talpade. Instead, he will play the chief antagonist in Golmaal 5, as per Variety India. In the previous instalment, Golmaal Again (2017), Neil Nitin Mukesh and Prakash Raj played the antagonists.

Akshay’s rare villainous turn

There are only a few films where Akshay has played an out-and-out villain, and that has always attracted eyeballs. The first instance was when he was revealed as the antagonist in Abbas-Mustan’s 2001 action thriller Ajnabee, locking horns with Bobby Deol. Seventeen years later, he played the chief antagonist Pakshi Rajan in S Shankar’s 2018 Tamil sci-fi action blockbuster 2.0 against Rajinikanth’s robot Chitti.

Akshay may be entering his villain era now, as he’s all set to play the bad guy in Priyadarshan’s upcoming action thriller Haiwaan, with his Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994) co-star Saif Ali Khan on the other side. After his mysterious cameo in Amar Kaushik’s 2024 blockbuster horror comedy Stree 2, producer Dinesh Vijan of Maddock Films touted Akshay as the Thanos of his Maddock Horror Comedy Universe.

While the exact genre of Golmaal 5 isn’t known yet (the previous installment was a horror comedy), but since comedy is nonetheless in the DNA of this franchise, Akshay is all set to make his presence felt as a formidable antagonist also because of his impeccable, unparalleled comic timing. After a slew of dramas, Akshay has also made a much-anticipated return to comedies recently with Housefull 4 and Welcome to the Jungle.

Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn reunite

It’ll be interesting to see Akshay and Ajay reunite yet again, in what’s their sixth outing together. They first shared screen space in Kuku Kohli’s 1994 action film Suhaag, followed by Rajkumar Satoshi’s 2004 political crime action film Khakee, and the dud that was K Subhash’s 2005 action crime thriller Insan.

Ajay and Akshay also popped up for cameos in Sooryavanshi (2021) and Singham Again (2024), both part of Shetty’s cop universe. A couple of years ago, when Ajay and Akshay appeared on the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, they also announced that Akshay will soon star in a film directed by Ajay, who has previously helmed action thrillers like Shivaay (2016) and Bholaa (2023).

Ajay directing Akshay in an action thriller would be a treat to watch too, but before they get there, they’ll probably be seen exchanging blows in Golmaal 5. The primary cast is expected to return for the fifth instalment too, with Sharman Joshi (who was a part of the gang in the first instalment) also likely to return to the franchise after almost 20 years.

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Another sequel for Ajay Devgn

If there’s another actor who’s beaten Akshay to starring in a host of sequels lately, it’s Ajay. The streak kicked off with Singham Again a couple of years. Sequels ruled the roost last year as Ajay reprised his memorable roles in Raj Kumar Gupta’s hit crime thriller Raid 2, Vijay Kumar Arora’s comedy Son of Sardaar 2, and Anshul Sharma’s family comedy De De Pyaar De 2. This year, he’s also all set to star in the fourth instalment of Indra Kumar’s comedy Dhamaal and the third instalment of Abhishek Pathak’s crime thriller Drishyam.

Golmaal 5 is likely to go on floors at the end of this month in Goregaon Film City, Mumbai. It’s likely to release in cinemas early next year.