Quentin Tarantino has revealed that he wanted to cast Laurence Fishburne in a '90s Luke Cage movie that never happened.
While he might be known for his R-rated action movies, the Pulp Fiction director once toyed with the idea of directing a Marvel movie and planned to give Luke Cage his first live-action outing.
Speaking on Amy Schumer's 3 Girls, 1 Keith podcast, Tarantino confirmed he'd wanted Fishburne to play Marvel's Power Man. "There was a time before all this Marvel shit was coming out," Tarantino explained. "It was after Reservoir Dogs, it was before Pulp Fiction, and I had thought about doing ‘Luke Cage.’ 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. All my friends were like, ‘No, no, no, man, it’s got to be Wesley Snipes. 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.'"
With the timeframe being somewhere between 1992 and 1994, Fishburne had already made a name for himself in the likes of Apocalypse Now and Boyz n the Hood. It's interesting to note that Tarantino would have opted for Fishburne over Snipes, but irrelevant as his vision of Luke Cage never came to pass. Snipes, of course, eventually went on to lead the Blade trilogy from 1998-2004.
While Fishburne starred as Bill Foster in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Ant-Man and the Wasp, he's also remembered for his role as Perry White in the DC Extended Universe. As for Luke Cage, Mike Colter portrayed the character for Netflix's series of the same name. It's currently unclear whether the Marvel Cinematic Universe plans to recast or keep Colter as Luke Cage.
Via Heroic Hollywood