HOLLYWOOD — Comedian and horror auteur Jordan Peele announced his next project will be STICKS, a film where white people beat black people with sticks as a subtle metaphor for racism.
STICKS will be Peele's fourth film distributed by Universal Pictures and also his fourth film about racism.
In an interview with Variety, Peele said he got the idea for STICKS while going on a hike. Along the trail, he saw several sticks, and his imagination ran wild. What if the sticks were used to beat black people in a horrific display of racism? What if they were racism itself?
"I thought long and hard about how my people have been persecuted over the years. Some of us — not me — have even been beaten with sticks," Peele said. "So what if I made a movie where white people were beating black people with sticks because the sticks made them do so?"
"The sticks are a metaphor for racism, you see," he clarified.
Though the exact plot details are currently being kept under wraps, the film will reportedly feature a hip black protagonist who struggles with prejudice. He is wary of white people and, just as he lets his guard down, sentient sticks from another dimension manipulate the white people into beating him with their sticks.
"The moral of the story is that racism controls us all," Peele said of the story. "Well, everyone except blacks. They're immune to its influence, which is why in my film they get beaten with the interdimensional racism sticks."
STICKS will release June 2026 in time for Juneteenth.
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