Netflix's Remake Of R-Rated Action Thriller Continues A Weirdly Specific Actor Streak

5 days ago 5

Published May 3, 2026, 5:29 PM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

While Yahya Abdul-Mateen II already had an impressive career before Netflix’s latest action thriller remake Man on Fire, his upcoming series reinforces a surprising trend that has emerged since 2017. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II first rose to prominence as Clarence "Cadillac" Caldwell in Baz Luhrmann’s infamously expensive disco drama The Get Down, a Netflix project that divided critics upon its 2016 release. While the show wasn’t flawless, Abdul-Mateen’s scene-stealing part was enough to garner the star a string of major roles in the years that followed.

Soon, Abdul-Mateen will appear in the upcoming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood sequel, The Adventures of Cliff Booth, but before that thriller, the star has a big Netflix role on the horizon. Abdul-Mateen will take over Denzel Washington’s role as John Creasy in Netflix’s Man on Fire, an action thriller series that remakes director Tony Scott’s 2004 movie of the same name. Based on the classic 1987 pulp novel by author A.J Quinnell, Man on Fire focuses on Creasy’s brutal revenge rampage after a little girl in his care is kidnapped.

Netflix’s Man On Fire Once Again Sees Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Inherit An Iconic Role

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as John Creasy sitting at a computer looking anxious in Man on Fire

Scott’s version of Man on Fire was a massive box office hit, earning over $130 million on a budget of $65 million, and the gritty, R-rated thriller was an obvious influence on Washington’s later Equalizer movies. Thus, the news that Man on Fire is set to receive another adaptation is hardly a shock, especially when the book already had a little-known earlier movie adaptation of the same name from 1987 starring Scott Glenn, Joe Pesci, and Jonathan Pryce. However, what is notable is what this implies for its star’s career.

Man on Fire continues Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s unlikely streak of inheriting iconic existing screen roles from other actors. Gregory Alan William played the original Garner Ellerbee in Baywatch and its spinoff Baywatch: Nights, while Laurence Fishburne played the Matrix trilogy’s version of Morpheus before Abdul-Mateen II took over the role in the reboot The Matrix Resurrections. While the star didn’t play exactly the same character as any earlier actor in 2021’s Candyman, without giving too much away, he did step into a seminal star's shoes with his role in the reboot.

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Can Make The Role Of Man On Fire’s John Creasy His Own

Denzel Washington's John Creasy shoots a gun with a fire behind him in Man on Fire

Meanwhile, on the small screen, 2019’s HBO adaptation Watchmen saw Abdul-Mateen II take over the role of Dr. Manhattan from Billy Crudup, who played the part in director Zack Snyder’s 2009 live-action movie adaptation. While these two versions of Dr. Manhattan differed a lot thanks to the creative license taken by both adaptations of Alan Moore’s iconic graphic novel, it’s still striking to see just how often Abdul-Mateen II has inherited existing roles.

Fortunately, the star can make the role of John Creasy his own in Netflix’s miniseries. While Washington’s performance in 2004’s Man on Fire is memorably great, his version of the PTSD-afflicted antihero is a stony-faced stoic, meaning Abdul-Mateen II can now access some of the humanity underneath the character’s tough facade for a more sympathetic take on the protagonist. Thus, the fact that Netflix’s Man on Fire once again sees its star inherit the show’s main role doesn’t need to be a problem for the promising action thriller show when the adaptation arrives.