Genndy Tartakovsky on why the Samurai Jack movie never happened

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Genndy Tartakovsky's Samurai Jack told a visually distinctive and action-packed story of a young samurai who was thrown into the distant future by a supernatural shape-shifting demon named Aku, and for four seasons, Jack, as he came to be called, quested to return to his past and defeat Aku once and for all. However, Cartoon Network cancelled the series in 2004 and Jack's story was left without a resolution. Over a decade later, Samurai Jack was brought back for a fifth and final season to finally conclude Jack's story, but, in the years between the fourth and fifth seasons, there were frequent rumblings of a Samurai Jack movie.

While speaking with IndieWire, Genndy Tartakovsky revealed that he worked with four different studios, including New Line Cinema, Sony Pictures, and J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot, but that none of them worked out. "As soon as we started developing it as a movie, they wanted to fit it into a box," Tartakovsky said. "I love ‘Jack’ as one of my creations and would never want to change it from what it was supposed to be. There was no reason to reinvent. It was working." Tartakovsky remained busy after Samurai Jack, working on Star Wars: Clone Wars, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, as well as other projects, so he didn't feel a burning need to move ahead with the Samurai Jack film, particularly as the studios interested in developing the project didn't seem to get what made Samurai Jack tick.

They wanted a lot of story twists, more dialogue, maybe a sidekick or two. We had to watch how much action there was. They wanted more comedy. They didn’t want the tone to be so dark. All those things equal to, 'Nah.'

Although it took a little longer than anyone thought, Genndy Tartakovsky's patience certainly paid off, as the ten-episode fifth season of Samurai Jack was met with damn near universal acclaim. The Complete Series of Samurai Jack was released on Blu-ray today, which, in addition to the fifth season, includes the first four seasons remastered in spectacular HD.