Chad Stahelski to direct ‘Black Samurai’ movie for Netflix 

If you are familiar with the Japanese culture, you might know about samurai or the soldier who served a Japanese feudal lord or the sensei. Also often known as the black samurai, this soldier would usually be of African origin, and has been brought to life in many books, animated series and films over the years. One such is a fiction series meant for children is the Black Samurai saga that has been written by American author Marc Olden.  

Recently, Netflix, has teamed up with filmmaker Chad Stahelski and scriptwriter-producer Leigh Dana Jackson to make a Black Samurai movie for the OTT platform. While Stahelski (of John Wick fame, starring Keanu Reeves in the lead) is all set to direct the film, Jackson (co-author and co-executive producer of the “kid-with-superpowers” series Raising Dion) will pen the script. The film will be co-produced by Stahelski himself, alongside two popular Hollywood production houses: 87Eleven Entertainment and Addictive Pictures.  

Not much is known about the Netflix adaptation so far, but one thing is for sure, it will be based on Olden’s eight books that were published in the 1970s.  

For those unaware, the books revolve around Robert Sand, an African American soldier on leave in Japan, who learns the ways of the most powerful martial arts and turns himself into an ideal Black Samurai. But how? Well, he gets accidentally involved in a conspiracy when he tries to protect an old Japanese man from a bunch of drunk American soldiers on the street of Tokyo and ends up getting shot himself. While Sand passes out from bleeding, the old, frail and wrinkled man springs on his tormentors, eventually beating them senseless. When Sand recovers his senses, he realises that the old man is none other than Master Konuma, the distinguished keeper of all ancient secrets of the samurai. Awestruck by his latest venture, Sand decides to become his pupil and master martial arts, swordplay and stealth from the best of the best.  

Over the next seven years, he becomes the first black man to ever take the oath of samurai, hence the name, Black Samurai. Not only that, he also becomes the strongest samurai to have ever lived. To cut a long story short, terrorists come back and slaughter Konuma and few of his pupils right in front of Sand. Unable to save their lives, Sand escapes devastated yet gnawing for vengeance.  

Throughout the series, he embarks on a mission to stop dangerous forces who threaten everything he holds dear and pledges to right all wrongs, while protecting world peace at all costs. All he has is his sword, but that’s all he needs.