Ta-Nehisi Coates and JJ Abrams Will Shape Superman’s Cinematic Future At Warner Bros.—UPDATE
Share
In an exciting turn of events, Warner Bros. has officially announced a future Superman movie franchise that takes place in the proper DCEU.
There hasn’t been a stand-alone movie featuring the last son of Krypton since 2013’s Man of Steel, directed by Zack Snyder and starring Henry Cavill.
Just days after the premiere of Superman & Lois did huge numbers for The CW, Warner Bros. has made it official: JJ Abrams is working on a new Superman movie.
Abrams will be doing so with best-selling author and comic book writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. It is not immediately clear whether Henry Cavill will return to reprise the role in this Superman movie, although Coates’s initial statement suggests that his movie will be in the shared continuity of DC’s film universe, colloquially known by fans as the “DC Extended Universe.”
“To be invited into the DC Extended Universe by Warner Bros., DC Films and Bad Robot is an honor,” Coates told Shadow and Act in a statement. “I look forward to meaningfully adding to the legacy of America’s most iconic mythic hero.”
“There is a new, powerful and moving Superman story yet to be told,” Abrams added. “We couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with the brilliant Mr. Coates to help bring that story to the big screen, and we’re beyond thankful to the team at Warner Bros. for the opportunity.”
“Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me opened a window and changed the way many of us see the world,” said Toby Emmerich, Chairman, Warner Bros. Pictures Group. “We’re confident that his take on Superman will give fans a new and exciting way to see the Man of Steel.”
Perhaps this would pave a way for actor Michael B. Jordan into the cape. There have been persistent rumors that Warner Bros execs have met with him about the role and there are two Black Superman characters that are part of DC Comics’ canon: Val-Zod of Earth-2 and Kalel/Calvin Ellis, the president of the United States of Earth-23.
With the DC Cinematic Universe moving towards a multiverse, this would be a no brainer.
RELATED: The Future of the DC Cinematic Universe Will Be A Multiverse, Including Competing Parallel Versions of Batman
On Friday, The Hollywood Reporter‘s Borys Kit reported the studio would revisit its plans for the “Black Superman project” that Jordan pitched in 2019.
When Oprah Winfrey asked Jordan whether he would be the next Superman in a 2019 interview, the Black Panther star said it was “flattering and humbling” to be rumored for the role before Winfrey asked: “Would you like to be Superman?”
“It’s tough. I hate being a businessman and understanding both sides of the situation. There is a huge upside to it, but being under that microscope, being picked apart and compared to so many different versions of Superman… I would rather do something original,” Jordan said at the time, adding that instead of Clark Kent, “I’ll be Calvin Ellis.”
Inspired in part by President Barack Obama, President Calvin Ellis (below), created by writer Grant Morrison is the Krypton-born Kalel, the Superman of Earth-23.
“There’s another version of Superman in another dimension that is Black already in the comic books that exist, and I think the comic book purists can accept that more than me being Clark Kent from Kansas,” Jordan said at the time. “That’s a different thing.”
