“It’s a sport at a crossroads, and that’s an interesting place”: Director Hubert Davis on remaking the hockey classic Youngblood

Way back in 1986, a very young Rob Lowe starred in the hockey flick Youngblood as a scrappy New York state rookie who chases his big break with the (fictional) Hamilton Mustangs and beats the crap out of his smug rival, played by Patrick Swayze. (It’s also Keanu Reeves’s first feature film.) Filmmaker and former pro hockey player Charles Officer was working on a Youngblood remake before his death in 2023. His edits included a far more pacifist stance on hockey fights and swapping Lowe’s white farm boy for a Black player from suburban Detroit. After Officer’s death, Canadian director Hubert Davis (whose father happens to be former Harlem Globetrotter Mel Davis) was called in to complete the film, having just wrapped his own documentary Black Ice, which investigates anti-Black racism in Nova Scotian hockey leagues. We caught up with Davis to talk about completing Officer’s vision, tackling the many culture changes rocking the world of hockey and how his film compares to Heated Rivalry.

Are you a big hockey head? I actually grew up playing basketball, so I’m much more of a fan of that. When I had the opportunity to make Black Ice, I asked a close friend of mine, “Am I even allowed to make this movie?” He said yes and that, in fact, coming from outside the sport would bring more objectivity. It helped me find things that people who aren’t within the sport would find compelling or interesting.

How did you get involved with Youngblood? I was friends with the late Charles Officer, who was the original director for the remake. He was a Black hockey player himself, so the story was infused with a lot of his own experiences. He was all set to do it, but he got sick and, tragically, passed away in 2023. Months after his death, the producers said, “You know, he would want us to finish it.” Ashton James, who plays Dean Youngblood, had been attached to it and was ready to go—he’d been training for two years already. So they approached me about directing it in the spring of 2024, and we shot last January.

What kinds of personal decisions did you make as its new director? I did a lot of work to get the characters right. There was a lot of hockey in the original script, which was great and super well written, but I wanted to condense it down so we could develop the characters more: the love interest, Jesse; the backstory with the coach, Chadwick; the relationship between Dean and his brother; and the father-son story at the heart of the film. I wanted them all to be three-dimensional. I thought that, if we could balance those stories with the hockey stuff, we’d have something interesting.

This Youngblood is a very loose remake of the 1986 film. Why adapt that rather than starting from scratch? Charles and I are roughly the same age, and that would have been a movie we both saw when we were younger. It’s always interesting when you re-contextualize something for today. That makes it more than just a remake, which feels lazy. What was interesting about that original film was the idea of someone following their dreams and overcoming the people standing in their way. That’s what I gravitated toward in the original, so that’s what I tried to explore.

This version follows a Black kid from Detroit rather than a white guy from New York. What was behind that particular change? The idea was always that Dean was an outsider. In the original, he’s an American coming to play in Canada. For us, it was even more powerful if we layer race into that. That really comes from Charles’s own experience, being a Black player and going into these situations with a chip on his shoulder, which was reflected in Dean as a character. By setting it in Southfield, this very specific suburb of Detroit, we could build in these references to the Detroit Red Wings. The more specific you make these things, the less generic they feel.

What learnings from Black Ice, which researched Black hockey leagues in Nova Scotia, did you bring to this? A ton. I was able to get into the mindset of a lot of Black players. Often, they had experienced racism from a young age, whether from teammates or coaches or opposing players, and that put them on guard. The incidents varied, but the reaction was always the same: the player could never be sure when it was going to happen again. From then on, they’re always scared. In the film, something happens to Dean early on, and for the rest of the story he’s trying to figure out who he can trust. That’s true for a lot of the people I spoke to for the documentary.

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In the original film, violence is celebrated. But, in your version, victory means overcoming the urge for violence. What led to that choice? That was in Officer’s script when I first read it, and I loved it. The original has this classic ’80s training montage midway through, where Dean’s dad teaches him how to fight so he can beat the bully. But, in our film, being the tough guy isn’t his role on the team: he’s there to score goals. That idea of finding your lane within the team gave me original Top Gun vibes. We’re still playing with these very ’80s ideas even in today’s landscape.

How do you see the film as addressing the current state of hockey culture? I’m hoping it feels authentic to younger hockey fans who didn’t grow up in that era but heard about it from their parents or coaches. It’s very much a movie about finding your own path. Hockey is a really interesting place for young players trying to figure out themselves and their identity within the broader culture. It’s a sport at a crossroads, and that’s an interesting place.

Hockey is also going through a reckoning with sexual assault. That doesn’t quite make it into the film. Any reason you chose not to go there? We had some ideas about that when we were getting into the character work. But I’m always worried about putting too much into a story and not being able to do justice to each issue. You risk making it feel forced, and this is subject matter that really needs to be done properly. I’d be happy to see another film or TV show dive into sexual assault in hockey, because it needs to be talked about. But it just didn’t fit within the framework of our story.

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How does the success of Heated Rivalry play into this? It’s amazing. Heated Rivalry was coming out just as we were looking at the posters for Youngblood, and it’s the same company doing both. I remember thinking that they looked a bit too similar. Little did we know the extent to which the show would blow up. They took a really bold swing, and I think it’s great for all of us. It captured something we hadn’t seen before. Hockey may seem monolithic, but actually, there’s way more going on if we’re able to explore the stories underneath. But, for the same reason, I wouldn’t change Youngblood now. It’s specific in its own way. The dynamic between the original material and what this story needed to become makes it work.

What’s next for you? I’m working on another narrative script idea for a political thriller and another documentary, this time about music. I have to say, I really like the narrative experience. You can have so much fun. But it’s too early to say anything more about either project.

Youngblood is opening in theatres across the US and Canada on March 6. What kind of reception are you hoping to see? I’m very curious. We’ve had screenings for really diverse crowds, with both hockey people and non-hockey people. I’ve been encouraged by the response from both. The hardest balance to strike was, How do we make a movie that hockey fans will like as well as people who have never seen a game before? The great thing is, we’ve seen both groups collectively cheer in theatres. It was like, “Oh, man, we did it.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.