Quentin Tarantino Quit His ‘Luke Cage’ Film When Wesley Snipes Was Suggested as the Marvel Superhero

As many know, Quentin Tarantino was interested in directing his own Marvel superhero film years before the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicked off.

But although he was very passionate about his Luke Cage project, he grew discouraged when Wesley Snipes was constantly suggested for the role.

Quentin Tarantino’s only problem with superhero movies was that he wished they came earlier

Recently, many directors have expressed their dissatisfaction with superhero movies, particularly from Marvel, becoming one of Hollywood’s most dominant brands. However, Tarantino isn’t one of them. Being a comic book fan himself in his youth, The Hateful Eight filmmaker couldn’t have been happier to see superhero movies prosper.

The only problem Tarantino had with superhero films is that it took too long to build a proper universe.

“I’ve been reading comic books since I was a kid, and I’ve had my own Marvel Universe obsessions for years. So I don’t really have a problem with the whole superhero thing right now, except I wish I didn’t have to wait until my 50s for this to be the dominant genre,” Tarantino once said in an interview with Vulture.

It didn’t help that, at the time when he watched movies the most, he didn’t enjoy many of the films that came out.

“Back in the ’80s, when movies sucked — I saw more movies then than I’d ever seen in my life, and the Hollywood bottom-line product was the worst it had been since the ’50s — that would have been a great time,” he said.

Quentin Tarantino gave up on his Luke Cage film after Wesley Snipes kept being suggested for the project

Tarantino once strongly considered directing his own Marvel project. Back in the early 90s, the Oscar Winner toyed around with the idea of doing a Luke Cage film. Mostly because he was such a huge fan of the character.

“It was after Reservoir Dogs, it was before Pulp Fiction, and I had thought about doing Luke Cage. Because I was a big comic book collector. And my two favorite comic books from the 70s were Luke Cage Heroes for Hire, and Shang-Chi master of Kung-Fu,” Tarantino once said on Amy Schumer Presents: 3 Girls, 1 Keith.

Tarantino then shared that he’d already decided to do Pulp Fiction by the time he thought about doing a Luke Cage film. Because of this, his Luke Cage project would arrive after his sophomore feature. He’d even had an actor in his mind as the titular character. But it was a choice that many close to him didn’t agree with, which affected Tarantino’s passion for the project.

“What actually dissuaded me from doing it was my comic geek friends talked me out of it,” he said. “Because I had an idea that Larry Fishburne would be the perfect guy to play Luke Cage,” Tarantino said.

Instead, his friends favored an actor who had a physique that resembled a superhero’s more.

“But all my friends were like, ‘No, no, man, it’s got to be Wesley Snipes.’ And I go, ‘Well, look, I like Wesley Snipes. But Larry Fishburne is practically Marlon Brando. I think Fish is the man.’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, but, you know he’d have to get in shape in a big way. Snipes is that way already.’ I go, f*** that, man, that’s not that important. I go, ‘F*** you, you ruined the whole damn thing,” he quipped.

Quentin Tarantino once named his favorite Marvel movie

Tarantino was catching up on several Marvel projects when its Phase 3 was coming to a close with Avengers End Game. While exploring the MCU, however, Thor: Ragnarok was the project that stood out the most to the Kill Bill director.

“I loved it,” he once said in an interview with Empire. “It was my favourite one of the series since The Avengers – drastically my favourite.”