Quentin Tarantino almost made a Luke Cage movie starring Lawrence Fishburne in the lead role. The iconic director spoke with Amy Schumer on her podcast, 3 Girls, 1 Keith, and explained that, in between Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Tarantino planned to make a superhero film.
“Growing up I was a big comic-book collector, and my two favorite [comic books] were Luke Cage: Hero for Hire, later Luke Cage: Power Man, and Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu.
“What dissuaded me … was my comic-geek friends talked me out of it,” Tarantino continued. “Because I had an idea that Larry Fishburne would’ve been the perfect guy to play Luke Cage. But all my friends were like, ‘It’s got to be Wesley Snipes.’ And I go, ‘Look, I like Wesley Snipes, but Larry Fishburne is practically Marlon Brando. I think Fish is the man.’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, but he’d have to get in shape in a big way. Snipes is that way already!’ And I go, ‘F*ck that! That’s not that important! F*ck you, you ruined the whole damn thing!’”
The project never came to fruition, but an entirely separate Luke Cage TV series arrived on Netflix in 2016.
[Via]