Valiant, relaunched a few years ago, has done an excellent job of diversifying its books and turning cheesy early ’90s jokes into genuinely interesting characters. This holds especially true of Bloodshot. Back in the ’90s, he was a character only a marketing executive could love, basically summed up as, “If Wolverine is popular, and the Punisher is popular, a Wolverpunisher will be even more popular!” Valiant has since turned him into, you know, a character with thoughts and feelings and a history, and now he’s actually interesting! Imagine that!
And now it’s paid off with a movie. According to Comics Alliance, Sony has hired David Leitch and Chad Stahelski to direct Bloodshot. You might remember them from John Wick. If you haven’t seen John Wick, here’s basically everything you need to know:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-HSoOFdJ3s
One hopes they’ve read Valiant’s comics, written by Duane Swierczynski, which have both a thoughtful take on a man without a history and a truly hilarious gory bent that riffs on exactly what happens when a soldier is pumped full of nanites and can basically keep going no matter what. That said, Sony wants a cinematic universe out of this, and it’s difficult to see how they can keep what makes Bloodshot great while still delivering a PG-13 rating.
On the other hand, Leitch and Stahelski are both experienced stuntmen and stunt coordinators, so, at the very least, the action will be a hoot. We’ll find out in 2017, which is the tentative release date they’ve penciled in.