Ben Arnold, Yahoo Movies UK, March 27, 2019

Jordan Peele reckons that he won’t be casting a white actor in the lead of one of his movies any time soon.

The man behind Get Out – not to mention revered sketch show Key & Peele – is currently riding high on a stunning opening weekend for his latest movie, the horror thriller Us.

It broke box office records, making $70 million over three days in the US, with Lupita Nyong’o and Black Panther’s Winston Duke in the lead roles.

It’s also the second biggest opening for an original live-action movie since Avatar.

And last night speaking at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles, he told an audience that he plans to stick to his winning formula.

“The way I look at it, I get to cast black people in my movies,” he said (via The Hollywood Reporter).

“I feel fortunate to be in this position where I can say to Universal, ‘I want to make a $20 million horror movie with a black family.’ And they say yes.

“I don’t see myself casting a white dude as the lead in my movie. Not that I don’t like white dudes.

“But I’ve seen that movie.”

He added: “It really is one of the best, greatest pieces of this story, is feeling like we are in this time – a renaissance has happened and proved the myths about representation in the industry are false.”

Peele also spoke about his next project, a reboot of The Twilight Zone for CBS, revealing his favourite episode of all time is The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, in which citizens of a small town fear aliens have landed.

“It points out the ugliness and flaws of humanity,” Peele said. “That’s what I like to do with my stories. The real monsters are within us. When people get together we are the greatest monster we’ve ever known.”

As well as box office glory, Us, which premiered at the South By Southwest festival, has debuted to solid reviews too, boasting a 94 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

It finds Nyong’o and Winston as the mother and father of a family who are terrorised by their own doppelgängers while on holiday.

It’s out now across the UK.