With a title as questionable as the names of fashion brand French Connection UK (FCUK) or Danish king Cnut the Great, Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds are returning to their teamup from The Hitman’s Bodyguard in animated form with new project Futha Mucka, for ‘short-form mobile video platform’ Quibi.
The plan is for Jackson and Reynolds to reprise their film roles as hitman Darius Kincaid and his bodyguard Michael Bryce respectively. Quibi’s synopsis reads “Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds love each other. More accurately, Ryan loves Sam. When asked for comment on his feelings for Ryan, Sam said ‘tell them I couldn’t be reached for comment’. When a minor mishap causes Sam to become Ryan’s primary caregiver, shit gets weird. Ryan is delighted to spend all of his time with Sam. Sam couldn’t be reached for comment.”
There is, still, a sequel to The Hitman’s Bodyguard on the cards, titled The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard – but its release was pushed back to 2021 due to the ongoing pandemic, so Futha Mucka seems to be something of a stopgap. Although the original film received mixed critical reviews when it came out in 2017, audiences tended to view it more favourably – including at the box office, where during a fairly slow week it made around six times its $30 million budget. Notably, at the time Variety’s Peter Debrudge likened it to “a live-action cartoon”, so Futha Mucka is simply leaning into that.
In doubling down on this concept, Jackson and Reynolds look to be trying to revive the interracial buddy-comedy formula, which gave us such hallmarks of the action genre as the Lethal Weapon franchise and the better Die Hards. Perhaps more seriously, it’s an attempt by Quibi to tie their colours to the mast of an already-established brand. In an increasingly fragmented streaming marketplace, Quibi – which former Disney bigwig Jeffrey Katzenberg had rather boldly conceived of as a phone-based alternative to television – has in large part fallen by the wayside.
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