After sending him into space and later, the hood (twice), WWE Studios and Lionsgate are taking the Leprechaun back to his gritty origins in, appropriately enough, Leprechaun: Origins.

The August 26 VOD/September 5 home video release will see WWE wrestler Dylan “Hornsoggle” Postl replacing series regular Warwick Davies as the evil imp, menacing a group of young people visiting an isolated village in the Irish countryside. Postl is joined by Stephanie Bennett (Grave Encounters 2), Andrew Dunbar (Alien Trespass), Melissa Roxburgh (Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days) and Brendan Fletcher (Freddy vs Jason) as the soon-to-be corpses who will cross the Leprechaun’s path.

The official synopsis see the four pretty young people’s backpacking adventure go awry as they “quickly discover the idyllic land is not what it appears to be be when [a] town’s residents offer the hikers an old cabin at the edge of the woods. Soon, the friends will find that one of Ireland’s most famous legends is a terrifying reality.”

It’s kind of a hard right for the series, which has been a kind of goofy joke since its inception over 20 years ago under director Mark Jones. Hey, remember when Jennifer Aniston was in the first Leprechaun movie? Based on this trailer, it’s unlikely that the Leprechaun will be doing much rapping or blunt rolling.

VFX guy and writer Zach Lipovsky (Tasmanian Devils) is directing, from a script by first-timer Harry Wilkinson.

This is the latest horror film from WWE Studios, who’s been cranking them out lately with See No Evil 2 and Incarnate coming later this year.

[Source: EW]