With the debut of the “John Wick” franchise several years ago, filmmaker Chad Stahelski fully established himself as one of the best action directors working today. But well before he helmed ‘Wick,’ the filmmaker was a busy guy, working on the stunt/fight choreography side of things, working on films such as “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Captain America; Civil War” for Marvel Studios. And now that he’s established a filmmaker himself, the question is whether or not he’d be willing to tackle a superhero film on his own?
Speaking to Comicbook.com, Stahelski was asked if he’d ever like to work with Marvel Studios on his own film, and while it doesn’t appear that he’s willing to take just any project, the director does have his eyes on one character in particular.
“If the opportunity ever came, the one that really jumps out to me would be like ‘Blade,’” the filmmaker said. “If they were going to redo ‘Blade’ or something like that, just because I feel that one, for some reason, the vampire martial art action vibe. That would be a cool one to stretch and try and reinvent.”
He added, “Other than that, it’s like, look, I’ve got the ‘John Wick’ stuff. I’m really curious about what I can do with ‘Highlander’ and how I reinvent the hero worship stuff. Those fascinate me a lot. I just like more of the original properties that you can grow from as opposed to step into a number five or a number six. That’s all. Just choice.”
And since he mentioned it, when does Stahelski think he’ll get around to the “Highlander” reboot? Apparently, pretty soon.
He said, “‘Highlander’ is very, very near and dear to what I want to do next.”
Obviously, with the success of the “John Wick” films, Stahelski isn’t struggling to find work, as studios are throwing a lot of different projects his way. And if Marvel Studios were to call him about the possibility of teaming up with Mahershala Ali for that “Blade” reboot the studio is working on, it sounds like he’d be interested in talking about it.
But for now, it appears that Stahelski is in “John Wick” mode for the foreseeable future.