By Alex Vena

In a world of reboots and remakes, Netflix‘s Man on Fire has plenty of source material, and series star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and executive producer Steven Caple Jr. agree that “it’s a great opportunity to take inspiration.”

“I’ve been a part of things [like] part twos and sequels and reimagining[s] and all those things, whatever you call it. I think the smart thing to do would be to look at it and say what worked and to take a closer look and to not stop at saying, ‘Okay, well, what did these actors do or what did the director do?’ But like, ‘What was the essence, you know, what did the audiences respond to?'” Abdul-Mateen II explained.

The Wonder Man star said he took the “heart” and “soul” from earlier works based on A.J. Quinnell’s book series, such as the 2004 film iteration, as he acknowledged that “there’s a couple huge ghosts”—specifically, director Tony Scott and Denzel Washington—”in the room when you talk about about this project.”

As Caple Jr. pointed out, the ’04 film followed 1987’s Man on Fire led by Scott Glenn, another take on Quinnell’s books, meaning “there is some overall overlap when it comes to inspiration when providing a texture.”

“Like each individual and each John Creasy in those reiterations were outside of their comfort zone, in a foreign country learning new things and by themselves as they’re sort of trying to figure out this way to resurrection, so to speak,” he explained. “And so there is some of that in terms of inspo, and that’s more of the plot engine. But ultimately we were trying to do our own thing. You know, between him being a new Creasy, to the rest of the cast that we had in our location, sort of offered up a new story and opportunity to explore new avenues”

For more on Abdul-Mateen II capturing the “human” side of the former Special Forces Mercenary at the center of the series and whether or not a second season of Man on Fire could be in store, check out the rest of DECIDER’s chat.

DECIDER: I’d love to start off with you, Yahya, asking about Creasy, who notably suffers from PTSD in the series. Your performance is so powerful. How did you tap into this side of Creasy throughout the process of shooting the show?

YAHYA ABDUL-MATEEN II: Yeah, that’s a great question. In terms of the post-traumatic stress disorder, I try to make it human. I took something as big as a very real theme as that, and I tried to say, well, how can I make it manageable, small enough to make it fit into the palm of my hand, so to speak. To me, when I cut it down to size, it was really about sadness. It was about loss and not being able to accept help, really, and that sort of created a barrier, an obstacle, so to speak. And then the rest of my job was to figure out how to represent a character that was managing that obstacle when Creasy did that with isolation. He did that through drinking. He did that through some self harm. And really it came down to cutting down that obstacle, cutting down that big thing into something that was human, that everybody could relate to. And then, letting the character work through it from there.

While the stories are different, both this series and there was a 2004 film adaptation of Man on Fire. Did either of you take any inspiration from the film adaptation for this, or did you feel like you were trying to create your own reimagining of the story?

YAM: I think it it’s a great opportunity to take inspiration. You know, I’ve been a part of things [like] part twos and sequels and reimagining and all those things, whatever you call it. I think the smart thing to do would be to look at it and say what worked and to take a closer look and to not stop at saying, “Okay, well, what did these actors do or what did the director do?” But like, “What was the essence, you know, what did the audiences respond to?” For myself, when I look at the earlier works, I see a lot of heart. I see a lot of soul. So I say, okay, well, that’s something that I can take and that’s just really doing intelligent field research and then applying it to what we’re doing this time around. I speak for myself, I took what what I saw worked that I could apply that would not get in the way of my performance at all. I think there’s a couple huge ghosts in the room when you talk about about this project, [2004 Man on Fire director] Tony Scott and [2004 Man on Fire star] Denzel Washington, and I didn’t want to give myself any obstacles. I like to stack the cards in my favor when I get up and when I go to work. I was fortunate enough to be able to work in that way and have a creative partner who also found a healthy degree of inspiration.

STEVEN CAPLE JR.: I could almost second what he said on all of that, for the most part. But ultimately, yeah, I think we also have to remember that it was it was a movie pre-’04 for in the 1980s with Scott Glenn, who also did a Man on Fire. And then there’s the book that AJ [Quinnell] created. So there is some overall overlap when it comes to inspiration when providing a texture, like each individual and each John Creasy in those reiterations were outside of their comfort zone, in a foreign country learning new things and by themselves as they’re sort of trying to figure out this way to resurrection, so to speak. And so there is some of that in terms of inspo, and that’s more of the plot engine. But ultimately we were trying to do our own thing. You know, between him being a new Creasy, to the rest of the cast that we had in our location, sort of offered up a new story and opportunity to explore new avenues.

This ending leaves the door kind of open for a second season. Do you guys feel there could be, or do you feel like this story kind of is wrapped up in the season?

YAM: Without giving away everything about the about the show, I think it’s always nice to be able to potentially peer forward into the future. Truly and honestly, I’m really excited to just to to present what we have and what we’ve made right now. I’m excited for people to sit down at home and cut off the lights and get really comfortable and go through these seven episodes that we want to present. And anything after that, you know, I think we’ll creatively cross that bridge when it comes to it. But I know that I can say it was a pleasure to make. You know, and I’d be happy to have more conversations when [it’s] the right time.

Man on Fire in now streaming on Netflix.