Spike Lee's Colin Kaepernick Documentary Is Canceled

The prospect of a Spike Lee-directed documentary on Colin Kaepernick seemed like an ideal combination of filmmaker and subject. Though Lee’s fictional films have been his highest-profile work, he’s also been behind critically-acclaimed nonfiction films like Four Little Girls and When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Kapernick’s story involves race, politics, social change and celebrity, all themes Lee has expertly reckoned with in his career.

But ESPN said it would not air the completed film. Reuters was the first to break the news, citing a statement from the network. “ESPN, Colin Kaepernick and Spike Lee have collectively decided to no longer proceed with this project as a result of certain creative differences,” ESPN stated. When asked further questions about the project, the director cited a nondisclosure agreement when explaining why he couldn’t reveal any further details.

There were signs that the documentary’s production was rocky. Late last year, Puck’s Matthew Belloni reported that Lee and Kaepernick had differing opinions on the direction of the project, for instance. But it’s also true that the timing of this isn’t great for ESPN, given that the NFL recently took a stake in the network and settled a legal case with Kaepernick (and Eric Reid) in 2019. If you were concerned that ESPN might alter its approach to covering the NFL, the news about this documentary isn’t exactly reassuring.

It Could Get Much Harder for ESPN to Objectively Cover the NFL

The league is reportedly taking a stake in the network

It’s entirely possible — even likely — that the two are completely unrelated. Regardless, the optics aren’t great for the network. And in a recent opinion piece for Poynter, Tom Jones observed that “the timing of this latest news can’t help but raise some eyebrows.” And, like the long-form Prince documentary that’s unlikely to ever air, cinephiles will be left to wonder what might have been.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…