Samuel L. Jackson is already set to send the box office to the stratosphere when he returns as Nick Fury in “Captain Marvel” this weekend, but he’s also ready to reprise another iconic character, John Shaft (II), in Tim Story’s “Shaft” later this summer. The trailer went online a few weeks ago and promised a film with three generations of crime fighters with Richard Roundtree (the original John Shaft I) and Jessie Usher (John Shaft II’s son) on board as well.
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The Oscar nominee recently sat down to talk about his Marvel Studios blockbuster and we were able to get in a few questions about the new “Shaft” as well. Jackson first played the role in John Singleton’s 2000 incarnation which found him taking down a corrupt and racist businessman (Christian Bale) and a drug lord on his payroll (Jeffrey Wright). Those characters along with those portrayed by Toni Collette and Vanessa Williams won’t be returning, but the question remains: Is this new “Shaft” movie in the same universe as the previous one?
“Yeah, we do know. Those events have already occurred. So, this is another time,” Jackson says. “It’s, as time has moved on to this particular place. I had that kid, yes. But I had that kid in another time and space of the first movie. And, she’s left me, and now the kid is back. In fact, in the first movie, I kept trying to find out, when do I get to be a sex machine with all the ladies? And, they were like, ‘Don’t worry, we got you.’ And I’m like, ‘No, you don’t. It’s not happening. Where is it?’ I guess, somewhere offscreen, I was a sex machine [at least once]. And [Regina Hall] had my baby.”
Jackson also reveals he was initially pitched this new incarnation as a generational story and that the first script was “a little too funny.” Not surprising since “Black-ish’s” Kanya Barris is one of the credited screenwriters.
“I had to convince them, number one, that there’s a level of mythology and respect that goes along with the John Shaft character, that you can’t make him a buffoon of any sort,” Jackson says. “He can be funny, and he can be righteous because he’s aging and times have changed. So he can be a little bit of an anachronism, in that respect. Maybe he’s not as wily with his online skills and all that other stuff. But, you have Richard being from the generation he’s from, me being from the generation I’m from, and now you got this new kid who’s a millennial, who’s all digital and not street. Raised in private schools and all this other stuff. So, we gotta teach him how to be a Shaft.”
And if the film’s a big enough hit to warrant a sequel? Well, the answer from Jackson is pretty obvious.
“I just do it as I do it,” Jackson says. “Oh sure, I’d do it, yeah.”
“Shaft” opens nationwide on June 14. “Captain Marvel” opens nationwide on Friday.