Jordan Peele Says That ‘Nope’ Will Be About “Black Joy”

While interviewing Nope star Daniel Kaluuya for Essence, Jordan Peele shared that his third-directed film will center Black joy in comparison to his previous works.

After a weighty pandemic filled with racial unrest, Jordan Peele doesn’t want to retraumatize Black moviegoers. While interviewing Daniel Kaluuya for a new Essence digital cover package, Peele spoke about his upcoming third film Nope and changing the course to evoke “Black joy.”

“It’s so tricky being considered in the vanguard of Black horror, because obviously Black horror is so very real, and it’s hard to do it in a way that’s not retraumatizing and sad,” Peele told Kaluuya for Essence. “I was going into my third horror film starring Black leads, and somewhere in the process I realized that the movie had to be about Black joy as well, in order to fit what the world needs at this moment. So that is part of why there’s sort of a spectrum of tonality of genre in here, because I wanted to give the horror, but I also wanted to give our characters agency and adventure and hope and joy and fun that they deserve.”

Along with Kaluuya, Nope stars Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, and Barbie Ferreira.

The anticipation and rollout for Nope has been jam-packed, including the unveiling of viral website Jupiter’s Claim and an upcoming VR collaboration with Meta. In online game Horizon Worlds, players can immersive themselves in the Nope and Monkeypaw Productions world, where visitors can play games, explore with other visitors and enjoy more interactive elements. Nope World will be followed by two additional VR experiences based on the company’s previous horror films—Get Out World: by Monkeypaw Productions and Us World: by Monkeypaw Productions—which will open to Meta Quest 2 users later this summer.

Nope releases on July 22nd.