As you may have heard, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino was once considering directing a Luke Cage movie. Based on the classic Hero for Hire comic books, it likely would have been inspired by blaxploitation movies similar to Jackie Brown, but it never came to pass. Now, the director has expanded on his decision not to make it, and it has nothing to do with any sort of creative issues.
During a recent conversation with Amy Schumer, Tarantino explained that rather than clashing with Marvel Comics or anything like that, it was his friends who ended up talking him out of it!
"All my friends were like, ‘No, no, no, man, it’s got to be Wesley Snipes,’" Tarantino said, explaining that they disagreed with his casting choice of Ant-Man and The Wasp star Laurence Fishburne. "And I go, ‘Well look, I like Wesley Snipes, but I mean, Larry Fishburne is practically Marlon Brando. I mean, I think 'Fish' is the man.’"
To give you some context of how long ago these discussions took place, the director added that his Luke Cage idea came between Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. Ultimately, his friends believed that Snipes had the better physique, not to mention the required star power.
Ultimately, Tarantino could only see Fishburne as Luke Cage, but after his friends convinced him otherwise, it seems he just gave up on the project altogether, and that's why it didn't happen.
There's no denying that it's interesting to think about what might have been, though...