Michael Jai White wants you to find the references in his spiritual sequel to Black Dynamite
It’s been a long road for fans of Black Dynamite since the uproarious Blaxploitation comedy burst onto screens in 2009. And it’s been an even longer road for star and co-writer Michael Jai White, who has spent much of the intervening decade and a half pulling together the movie’s long-awaited spiritual sequel, Outlaw Johnny Black.
First teased with a trailer back in 2018 and filmed a year later, Outlaw Johnny Black has taken its sweet time to make it to screens. But it’s finally here: The comedy opens in theaters this weekend, and it isn’t like anything else at the movies this year. As a teaser released in May put it, “As faith-based Western Black exploitation kung-fu action romantic comedy dramas go, it’s right up there with the rest of ’em.”
White wore many hats on this production, on top of the black cowboy hat he wears as the movie’s title character. In addition to starring and co-writing with his friend and Black Dynamite collaborator Byron Minns, White directed Outlaw Johnny Black and produced it under his company Jaigantic Studios. Polygon spoke to White on a video call about the lengthy process of getting the movie to this point, the state of action comedies, the influence of Monty Python and Sidney Poitier, and much more.
This interview has been edited for concision and clarity.
Polygon: When did you first know you wanted to make this movie? How did it come to fruition, and why did the trailer come out five years ago?
Michael Jai White: You know, when I did Black Dynamite, we always intended on doing three movies in this Blaxploitation genre. And the second one was this one, which was going to be a nod to Buck and the Preacher, as well as several movies of that time period, just Western movies. It’s kind of
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