Jordan Peele didn't just walk into Hollywood; he kicked the door down with a teaaddy and a silver spoon. Honestly, if you told someone back in the Mad TV days that the guy doing the Bobby Lee impressions would become the most important name in modern horror, they’d have laughed you out of the room. But here we are.
It’s January 2026, and the big question everyone is asking—aside from "when is the next one coming?"—is exactly what movies has Jordan Peele directed to earn this level of cult-like devotion.
The list is short. That’s the wild part. Only three movies are officially under his belt as a director, yet each one has basically shifted the tectonic plates of pop culture. He doesn’t just make movies; he makes "events" that force you to spend three hours on Reddit afterwards trying to figure out what that one specific shadow meant.
The Big Three: What Movies Has Jordan Peele Directed?
If you're looking for the breakdown, it’s remarkably simple. He has a "one-word title" obsession that is honestly kind of iconic at this point.
- Get Out (2017)
- Us (2019)
- Nope (2022)
That’s it. That’s the list. But "simple" is the last word you’d use to describe the actual films.
Get Out: The Cultural Reset
When Get Out landed in 2017, it felt like the air in the theater changed. You’ve probably seen the memes of Daniel Kaluuya with tears streaming down his face while he’s paralyzed in the "Sunken Place," but seeing it for the first time was something else.
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Peele took the awkwardness of meeting your girlfriend’s parents and turned it into a visceral nightmare about liberal racism and the commodification of Black bodies. It cost about $4.5 million to make and raked in over $255 million. That’s not just a hit; that’s a "studio-execs-falling-out-of-their-chairs" level of success. He even snagged an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, making it clear he wasn't just a "comedy guy" trying out a new hobby.
Us: The Mirror We Don't Want to Look At
Two years later, we got Us. This one was... a lot. Lupita Nyong'o gave two of the best performances of the decade playing both Adelaide and her "Tethered" doppelgänger, Red.
While Get Out was a sniper rifle, Us was more like a shotgun blast of metaphors. Hands Across America? Underground tunnels? Golden scissors? It was a dense, terrifying look at the "underclass" we choose to ignore. Some people found it a bit too messy compared to the tight script of his debut, but you can’t deny the sheer ambition. It proved Peele wasn't interested in playing it safe.
Nope: The Summer Blockbuster That Bit Back
Then came 2022 and Nope. If you haven't seen it, basically, imagine Jaws but in the clouds.
Peele reunited with Daniel Kaluuya and brought in Keke Palmer (who was absolutely electric) to tell a story about a predatory UFO—or rather, a biological entity—terrorizing a horse ranch. It’s a movie about the "spectacle" of tragedy. How we can’t look away from a car crash. How Hollywood chews up and spits out its stars (literally, in this movie).
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Where is the Fourth Film?
This is where things get a bit frustrating for the fans. For a while, we were all circling October 23, 2026, on our calendars. That was the date Universal originally set for Peele’s fourth directorial effort.
Well, as of late 2025, that date has vanished.
Universal pulled the "Untitled Fourth Film" from the schedule entirely. Why? Because Peele is a perfectionist. He mentioned on Conan O'Brien’s podcast that he has a clear vision, but cameras haven't even started rolling yet. There were rumors about a Get Out sequel or a Nope follow-up, but honestly, that’s just internet noise. Knowing him, it’ll be another original concept with a four-letter title that makes us all terrified of something mundane, like a toaster or a specific type of hat.
The "Producer" Confusion
A lot of people get confused about what movies has Jordan Peele directed because his name is everywhere. He’s like the modern-day Rod Serling. He produced the Candyman spiritual sequel (directed by Nia DaCosta), the Twilight Zone reboot, and the intense sports-horror flick HIM (starring Marlon Wayans), which just hit theaters recently.
But producing isn't directing. When he’s in the director’s chair, the visual language is different. There's a specific way he uses silence and wide-angle shots to make you feel like something is watching you from the corner of the screen.
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Why These Movies Work (E-E-A-T Insights)
The reason Jordan Peele is a household name after only three movies comes down to "social horror." He didn't invent the genre—directors like George A. Romero were doing it with Night of the Living Dead decades ago—but Peele modernized it for an era where everyone is chronically online and socially anxious.
His films work because they operate on two levels:
- Level 1: A genuinely scary popcorn flick with jump scares and monsters.
- Level 2: A complex thesis paper on race, class, and human nature.
If you just want to see a weird alien eat people, Nope works. If you want to discuss the exploitation of Black jockeys in early cinema history, Nope also works. That’s the secret sauce.
Summary of the Peele Filmography (So Far)
| Movie | Year | Primary Theme |
|---|---|---|
| Get Out | 2017 | Systematic racism and the "Sunken Place" |
| Us | 2019 | Class divide and the "Tethered" |
| Nope | 2022 | The danger of the spectacle and animal nature |
The wait for the next project is going to be long. With the 2026 date scrapped, we might be looking at 2027 before he finally returns. In the meantime, the best thing you can do is go back and re-watch the original trilogy. You’ll find something new every time. Watch the background of the party scene in Get Out or look closer at the "Starless" t-shirt in Nope. The man doesn't waste a single frame.
If you're looking for your next fix, keep an eye on Monkeypaw Productions' smaller projects. They often act as a testing ground for the kind of weird, high-concept ideas that eventually make it into Peele’s own scripts. For now, we wait for the next one-word title to change everything again.