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Published May 1, 2026, 8:30 PM EDT

[Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Man on Fire Season 1]

Summary

Collider talks with director Steven Caple Jr. for Netflix's Man on Fire Season 1.
Caple Jr. discusses establishing the tone and aesthetic and capturing the authenticity of Brazil.
He also talks about representing John Creasy's mental health and crafting Episode 2's epic action sequence with the plane.

For their explosive first season of Man on Fire, Netflix tapped filmmaker Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II, The Land) to helm Episodes 1 and 2, setting the tone, pace, and aesthetic for the show. The series is an adaptation of A.J. Quinnell’s five-book series, first seen on screen with Tony Scott’s 2004 film starring Denzel Washington, and expands on the character of John Creasy, played in the series by Emmy Award winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Wonder Man).

In the show, we meet Special Forces mercenary Creasy as he’s grappling with severe PTSD from a mission that resulted in the loss of his entire team. With the help of a longtime friend, Creasy takes steps towards the path of redemption, but is dragged back into the fold by a devastating attack. Man on Fire also stars Bobby Cannavale (Scarpetta), Billie Boullet (A Small Light), Alice Braga (Dark Matter), and Scoot McNairy (Narcos: Mexico).

While talking with Collider, Caple Jr. takes us behind the scenes for that epic action set piece in Episode 2, breaking down the VFX versus practical and Abdul-Mateen II’s stunts, and what it was like from the director’s chair, working to set the series apart from the streamer’s vast catalogue of television and film. He also shares his nods to director Scott, who directed Washington’s Man on Fire, and how the show handles John Creasy’s mental health without shying away from the darker aspects of his mental state. Check out the full conversation, with time codes below, for all of this and what else is in store from Caple Jr., including I Am Legend 2.

Steven Caple Jr. Explains the Gritty, Unpolished Approach to Creasy's Story

"I just really wanted to put the audience in that scene."

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COLLIDER: Before we jump into the show, I like asking some curveballs. So what is the smallest detail that you've obsessed over as a director?

STEVEN CAPLE JR.: Oh my gosh, that's a great question. Honestly, it probably was this project. Have you talked to Yahya at all?

Not yet.

CAPLE JR.: If you do, see if he remembers this, because I do, what shoes was he wearing? It was a big discussion. “Does John Creasy even care?” And then it started to kind of develop the character. The shoes we selected, you probably didn't even pay attention to what he was wearing, but it was one of the biggest things. It freaked me out because I don't know a guy who would wear these shoes on these types of missions, but there were some low-end Doc Martens with no ankle support. He wanted it to be like he didn't care, he was grabbing clothes from anywhere.

I'm used to, and I didn't realize this until this [show], I still feel like collaborating with Nike and other designers, or if someone's wearing something tactical, they wear something tactical. But this one was a huge headache with trying to figure out what shoes he was going to wear, to the point where Yahya was actually purchasing his own shoes and bringing them in for a test. We ended up finding a great pair, but ask him if he remembers that, because I remember it just being a big thing for me.

That’s actually really funny, but this leads me to what I was basically getting to, which is, you directed the first two episodes, and that really is setting up the aesthetic of the show, the pacing of the show. So many little things are in your toolbox, if you will. Talk a little bit about what you wanted to accomplish with the aesthetic and the look of the character, and setting this world up.

CAPLE JR.: Well, one, we're on Netflix, so I was making sure that our show stood out from the rest. So it goes from the type of camera used to the lenses we used, spherical, the whole nine. We really wanted to tap into the world that we're about to capture. So we did shoot in Brazil, which I was excited about, so capturing life in Brazil and locations. I wanted to make sure the tone felt, it’s cliché to say, but as authentic as possible. We shot in Rocinha, the projects, the favelas. We used real Brazilian actors. The language barriers were a big thing. Kyle [Killen], our showrunner, could speak more about that as well. We wanted the show to feel authentic, to appear as if we just didn't have it all figured out because John Creasy didn't. He was in a foreign place, and so texture-wise, I just really wanted to put the audience in that scene, like we just don’t know what’s to come or where we are.

Tonally, look-wise, it's pretty moody in a cool way with the use of shadows and everything that I'm excited about when stepping into something like this. There are moments where I tried to pay homage to Tony Scott and what he's done. We shot in Mexico City, as well. There were a few locations I couldn't even touch because they did it in the OG film… It was kind of hard sometimes, chasing pigeons and getting some extreme close-ups that Tony Scott was great at pulling off, especially during emotional moments, which is cool.

There's More to Creasy’s Mental State Than Episode 1 Reveals

"Is he still that monster from the past?"

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One of the things about the show, and especially in Episode 1, is that you need to show what his headspace is and the fact that he is thinking about killing himself. This is a really delicate subject matter, so talk a little bit about getting the audience to understand where he's at emotionally and in his headspace and finding that in the edit, because you want to make it feel real.

CAPLE JR.: Well, that's what drew me to the project was exploring someone who was in that sort of mental state and finding some sort of resurrection and hope on the other side of it. Honestly, when I first read the script, you’ve seen the whole thing, there's a cold open, a scene that happens before the moment where he decides to make this decision in a car, underneath a highway, under a bridge. That's what drew me to the project. Personally, I had a friend of mine who did commit suicide, and so I was very much interested in exploring those emotions around it.

That's where Bobby [Cannavale], Rayburn, comes in, the family, trying to pull him out of this sort of funk, and he goes deeper into it. It felt like that was the only way out of it. It was an interesting journey for me. Though I didn't get to direct the whole episode, it’s great to be a part of setting that up, for me. So, that's what drew me into the project.

But in terms of the mental health of it all, and where both Yahya and I stood on it, was the idea of, “Is there such a thing as a new beginning for someone? How do you restart life after you feel like you've failed at it the first time?” And I think the series very much explores that, especially when he's on his journey. He's always questioning that in scenes, like, "How dark is he? Is he still that monster from the past?" All those things, which it feels like you don't really get to explore in other TV shows and/or movies sometimes.

It's also because it's such delicate subject matter that if you do it wrong, the audience and people are going to be like, “F you.”

CAPLE JR.: Yeah, we don't want to do it wrong. So hopefully the audience is good to vibe with what we created. It also wasn't like, “Oh, here's the journey back!” We took the steps, and we were careful with other substances that may have been involved with it, as well. You know, was he on medication? How much of drinking? If you remember from the first original film, everyone was drinking heavily, so we kind of toned back some of the drinking in some places, just to sort of understand his mental state, and his emotional state at that. So yeah, hopefully, audiences understand what we were going for.

Steven Caple Jr. Breaks Down How They Pulled Off Episode 2's Massive Plane Stunt

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The second episode has a pretty effin’ crazy action set piece, which involves a plane. You have a plane taking off, there's an engine on fire, they land on a highway, they’re stealing a car. There's a lot to it. Talk a little bit about crafting that sequence, especially on a TV budget.

CAPLE JR.: The budget wasn't horrible in terms of what we wanted to pull off. It actually was enough. It was more so time. That's one of the things, is trying to navigate time for rehearsal to pull off stunts and real action, so to speak. We didn't rely too crazy on visual effects. We actually did have a plane. The plane did take off and land. We actually were on a tarmac with a jeep chasing a plane, shooting blank guns. All that was real.

We properly went through rehearsal to make sure everything was done safely. Thank you to the airport, which allowed us to shoot on location. But ultimately, it was the jumping from the car — I shot that with the stunt guys and Juliana [Cretella] — jumping from the car to the actual plane itself. We had a great stunt team around it. Yahya did as much as get to the edge of it. He'll tell you that he jumped. If he did, you didn't hear from me. The big leap was a great stunt man who had worked on plenty of films, had done leaps before.

So, it took a lot of planning to get it right. It was one that you're kind of nervous about. But in terms of film, it felt like everyone, the producers and everyone I worked with, knew that this was a big moment. We really wanted to nail the hangar sequence, as we called it, to make sure people knew that it was something pretty big and cinematic.

100%. I'm basically out of time, but if you get to make another season, are you directing more?

CAPLE JR.: Yeah, I would love to direct more. This one was all based on timing, Season 1, like just my schedule personally. But yeah, next season I would love to definitely direct more.

Can I ask what else you're working on?

CAPLE JR.: A few other projects. I mean, it's out there, I Am Legend. I’m definitely working on the sequel to that. So that's something that we're working on. And a few projects at Paramount. Yeah, Grey Skies is our company at Paramount, so we're trying to move some things through there, too.

Man on Fire Season 1 is available to stream on Netflix now.