Zach Cregger Ignites Bidding War That Hands Jordan Peele His Biggest Loss on Weapons
After Barbarian blew up, Zach Cregger’s follow-up Weapons sparked a Hollywood feeding frenzy—culminating in an eight-figure New Line deal for a project that even Jordan Peele had his eye on.
After Barbarian blew up in 2022, Zach Cregger suddenly had every studio in town chasing his next thing. That turned into a full-on bidding war for his follow-up, Weapons. New Line won with an eight-figure deal. Jordan Peele and Monkeypaw wanted it badly, didn’t get it, and the whispers about what happened next have been loud ever since. Cregger just addressed it — sort of — and also made it clear he’s ready to leave one very familiar horror trope in the rearview.
The quick recap
- Post-Barbarian, Cregger’s Weapons sparked a heated studio bidding war in 2023.
- New Line Cinema ultimately took it with an eight-figure offer.
- Jordan Peele and his company Monkeypaw were in the hunt and considered the project a priority.
- In a new chat with The Playlist, Cregger was asked about the rumor that Peele fired an exec after losing Weapons.
- His answer dodged the drama, but here’s what is actually known: soon after Monkeypaw missed out on Weapons, Peele ended his relationship with his longtime Artists First managers, Joel Zadak and Peter Principato (per Deadline). There’s been no confirmation that those two events are connected.
About that rumor
The Playlist asked Cregger point-blank whether the story about Peele firing someone over Weapons was true. He wanted no part of it.
"That’s not for me to talk about."
Read that how you want, but it’s not a confirmation and it’s not a denial. What can be said without squinting at subtext: Peele didn’t fire a studio executive; he did part ways with his Artists First managers around that time, and nobody involved has officially tied that move to the Weapons outcome.
Where Cregger’s head is at creatively
Cregger also talked about the current horror mindset that equates scares with a deep dive into grief and trauma. He gets why it’s everywhere — horror is, by nature, traumatic — but he’s over it as a mission statement. He said he’s ready to move past the trend of treating a horror film as a formal meditation on grief or the ripple effects of trauma. The aim going forward: still scary, still tense, just not framed as a therapy session.
Bottom line
Weapons landed at New Line in a monster deal after Barbarian’s breakout, Monkeypaw wanted it, and the gossip that followed hasn’t been confirmed by anyone on the record. Cregger isn’t fanning those flames. What he is doing is pivoting away from the grief-as-genre default and aiming for something leaner and meaner next time out.