Actor Remi Adeleke is turning his talents to fiction.
Adeleke, the former Navy SEAL who made his acting debut in Transformers: The Last Knight, is writing three fictional thrillers for William Morrow, Deadline reports.
The trilogy will follow Kali Kent, a Nigerian native who works for a CIA special-ops program. Kent, like Adeleke himself, is the scion of Nigerian royalty who grew up in New York.
“As a kid, I was obsessed with the world of espionage and closely followed characters such as James Bond, Ethan Hunt and—as I grew older—Jason Bourne,” Adeleke said. “Now I get to share a character I created, who also looks like me, comes from the same place I came from and who has evolved from the streets of the Bronx into an intelligent, multifaceted changemaker.”
David Highfill, Morrow’s executive editor, said he “can’t wait” to publish Adeleke’s novels.
“I knew after reading the first scene that Remi’s manuscript was one that I had to publish,” Highfill said. “It has the hallmarks of a thriller debut that will energize everyone who touches it. It has the action, intrigue and high stakes we all love, but more importantly, it has real heart.”
Adeleke is the author of a previous book, a 2019 memoir titled Transformed. There’s no word yet on a release date for Adeleke’s novels.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
