Netflix has premiered its new adaptation of Man on Fire, a seven-episode series starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and it is already reviewing better than the beloved 2004 film directed by the late Tony Scott and starring Denzel Washington.
The new series holds a 60% score on Rotten Tomatoes, comfortably ahead of the 2004 film’s 39% from critics, though audiences have long disagreed with that verdict, giving the Denzel version an 89% audience score with over 250,000 reviews and a 7.7 out of 10 on IMDB. The new show sits at 6.7 on IMDB and 70% with audiences, though with far fewer reviews counted so far.
The series debuted at number two on Netflix. 
Abdul-Mateen II plays John Creasy, a former special forces operative haunted by a mission that went badly wrong, leaving him unemployed, isolated and battling post-traumatic stress disorder to the point of attempting suicide early in the story. A former colleague then invites him to Rio de Janeiro to rebuild his life, and it is there that the colleague’s daughter, Poe, played by Billie Boullet, becomes both his emotional anchor and his companion as he hunts down the people whose bomb killed her family.
The show also features Bobby Cannavale and Alice Braga in its international cast.
Showrunner Kyle Killen said Abdul-Mateen II was always his first choice for the role. “The thing about Yahya is he can do everything. It’s not that I saw one thing and said, ‘That’s John Creasy.’ It’s that I saw his range, and realized, ‘That’s what John Creasy needs,'” Killen told Netflix’s Tudum.
Abdul-Mateen II described Creasy as a man who finds it easier to help others than to accept help himself. “His trauma is such that he’s afraid to make friends. Creasy has no problems helping someone else, but when it comes to saying yes, allowing himself to be helped, then that’s when we see him really, really struggle,” he said.
Reviewers have praised Abdul-Mateen II’s physical presence and emotional depth in the role, with critics noting that his stillness and economy of movement make him entirely believable as a man who never loses a fistfight. The Guardian described his performance as a sign that he should branch out from comic-book material and explore more straight drama, having previously appeared in Aquaman, Watchmen and Wonder Man.
The show is not a wall-to-wall action series. It regularly slows down for extended scenes dealing with Creasy’s psychological instability and Poe’s grief, a tonal choice that reviewers say makes some of its more outlandish action sequences harder to take seriously. The Guardian noted that despite its grim tone, the show still asks audiences to believe Creasy can drive a car along a runway, leap through machine-gun fire into a moving plane, disarm an assassin mid-flight and then land the aircraft himself.
Man on Fire is the third adaptation of AJ Quinnell’s 1980 novel. The first, released in 1987, starred Scott Glenn as Creasy. The 2004 version moved the story to Mexico City, changed Creasy’s background to a former CIA operative and kept the kidnapped child alive, a departure from the original novel.
Whether the Netflix version remains a miniseries or continues beyond its first season will likely depend on viewing figures. Netflix has been searching for its own equivalent of Amazon’s Reacher, with The Night Agent having lost significant viewership momentum. Abdul-Mateen II is also committed to a second season of Wonder Man within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which could complicate any potential continuation of Man on Fire.
