The actor-director-producer’s long-rumored association with the ‘Man of Steel’ may take a different path than current movie plans would suggest.
It took a few years, but it finally seems as if DC’s Men of Tomorrow are back in the spotlight at Warner Bros. Alongside the plans for Ta-Nehisi Coates and J.J. Abrams to bring a new Superman to the big screen, Michael B. Jordan’s own Black Superman project appears to have a home at HBO Max.
His company, Outlier Society, is developing a project that centers on the Val-Zod incarnation of the character, according to a report by Collider. Sources say that a writer has already been hired to work on the script, and said scribe has yet to be publicly announced. It is unclear whether the Val-Zod project would be a movie or a limited series, but if it is to be the latter, Jordan sounds like the opportune choice for the leading role.
In addition to that, Jordan has also shared a preview of the return of gen:LOCK Season 2, which returns to HBO Max this fall. The series features an all-star cast of voices, including Jordan, Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones), David Tennant and Dakota Fanning, fighting against overwhelming odds and persevering in the face of fear and hopelessness.
You can watch the entire panel involving Williams and Jordan, below:
And the exclusive first footage from Season 2 can be seen here.
Jamie Broadnax of Black Girl Nerds published a recent editorial about how Warner Bros. re-imagined version of Clark Kent could be tone-deaf in general, and particularly within the Black community. “[To] racebend a white character and erase Black characters that already exist(s) in the DC universe under the Superman banner—Calvin Ellis and Val-Zod,” would be a calamitous distinction, according to the op-ed.
At the end of the day, Jordan is not committed to the plans to melanate Clark Kent, and wants to focus on continuing to improve the roles for Black people. “It’s important for people to see themselves in roles that they normally wouldn’t see,” he told the Hollywood Reporter back in April while promoting Without Remorse. “What that does to the next generation, to a kid or somebody that didn’t think that is something that they could achieve—now they’re thinking about it and daydreaming about it.”
Up next for the talented multi-hyphenate is his directorial debut, Creed III, while also developing a Static Shock movie for Warner Bros. and a remake of The Thomas Crown Affair for MGM and the Russo brothers’ AGBO banner.
