Liv Morgan Starring In Takashi Miike's Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo (WWE News)

WWE's Liv Morgan starring in Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo.

May 1, 2025 May 1st, 2025

With WWE's Liv Morgan announcing on this week's Raw that she'll be taking time off to shoot a "big Hollywood movie", we now have details on what exactly that movie is.

As first reported by Deadline, Morgan has a major role in Neon's Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, from legendary genre director Takashi Miike. Liv stars alongside Godzilla vs. Kong's Shun Oguri and Pam & Tommy's Lily James.

Written by long-time Miike collaborator Daisuke Tengan, Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo has Oguri playing the titular Bad Lieutenant, a corrupt gambler working in the Metropolitan Police Force who winds up involved in a case revolving around an FBI Agent who's in Tokyo to investigate the disappearance of a politician's daughter... all as a killer lurks in the shadows of the yakuza underworld. Lily James will play the FBI Agent, while Liv Morgan is playing the politician's daughter.

While Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo has yet to have a release date announced, production will start imminently in Tokyo, and the picture has been confirmed for a theatrical release in North America.

This marks the first Bad Lieutenant movie since 2009's Nicolas Cage-starring, Werner Herzog-directed Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which itself followed the 1992 original from Abel Ferrara and fronted by Harvey Keitel.

The Films Of Takashi Miike

For those wrestling fans maybe not too familiar with Takashi Miike, not only is he one of the most popular, influential Japanese filmmakers of all time, but he's also one of the most controversial, with many of his pictures featuring extreme violence and incredibly brutal gore.

Some of Miike's most notable films include the wince-inducing, stomach-turning Audition (pictured above), the intense, outright cruel Ichi the Killer, and the chilling psychological horror One Missed Call. The point being, this is a director who so often brings savagery to the screen and is never afraid to show things that other filmmakers may deem as being too much. Given how the previous two Bad Lieutenant pictures are infamous for their spiralling insanity and imagery, Takashi Miike could well be an ideal fit to bring the IP back to life.

As for Liv Morgan, this is hands-down the biggest acting gig of her career, with the current four-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champion having had a minor role in 2023's Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman-headlined comedy-thriller The Kill Room, and also having a brilliantly memorable, bloody appearance in the second season of the Chucky TV series, where she was slaughtered by everyone's favourite Good Guy doll.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

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