Blake Lively’s next film role is very unexpected

And we can’t wait.

Blake Lively has played countless roles over the years: Carol Ferris in Green Lantern (where she met husband Ryan Reynolds), Adaline Bowman in The Age of Adaline and Veronica Hayes in Woody Allen’s Café Society to name just a few. We will always know her however as Gossip Girl’s Serena van der Woodsen.

Last year, she surprised us all with her film choice, starring in The Shallows, a survival thriller about a surfer stranded in the middle of a great white shark attack. While stepping outside of her comfort zone in the physically demanding action film, Blake received critical acclaim for the role and it looks like it has paved a new path for the actress in the film industry.

It was recently announced that Blake Lively has signed on for her next film and she certainly seems to be going down a similar route, with the actress set to play an MMA fighter. Yes, really.

Blake is set to star in Bruised, a mixed martial arts action-drama film, directed by Nick Cassavettes.

Playing the role of Jackie in the film, Deadline has reported that Blake will play ‘a single mother working two jobs and a disgraced MMA fighter who has been up against the ropes her entire life.’ They then went on to explain the film plot: ‘When the authorities threaten to take [Jackie’s] young son away from her, she must get back in the cage for one last chance to fight for redemption and give her son the life she always wanted.’

In an interview with Variety last month, the actress opened up about the role. ‘I’m about to do a movie in a couple of months where I’m playing a woman who is a fighter.’ Opening up about training for the role, Blake explained ‘I’m not there yet. I’m getting my back strong’.

With gruelling training for Bruised as well as running her own business - not to mention parenting two daughters under the age of two, Blake Lively is set to have a very busy year.