Warner Bros. has found the screenwriter for their newest announced Superman movie, Ta-Nehisi Coates. Superman will be returning to the silver screen in a different way than audiences might have seen before. Under the production of J.J. Abrams, Coates will be writing a story for a Black Superman movie.
Coates is most known for his non-fiction works, celebrating and examining the lives of Black Americans. Coates’ previous books and essays, which included We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy, The Beautiful Struggle, The Water Dancer, and Between the World and Me, show his impressive writing ability. However, Coates has also written for Marvel Comics. With additional experience writing stories for Captain America and Black Panther, Coates should have no problem writing for a major superhero blockbuster.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, in an interview with Shadow and Act, a website dedicated to the global African diaspora in media, spoke about the project.
I look forward to meaningfully adding to the legacy of America’s most iconic mythic hero. To be invited into the DC Extended Universe by Warner Bros., DC Films and Bad Robot is an honor.
Sources say that this new version will feature a Black Superman. Whether this change means we’ll be seeing President Superman/Calvin Ellis, or Val-Zod, or if it will bring a whole new background to Kal-El remains to be seen.
The newest Superman film will have J.J. Abrams at the helm as producer, and will introduce new direction for the Man of Tomorrow’s story. Abrams signed a WarnerMedia deal back in 2017 and his resulting DC series will be released in the future. Coates’ Superman, however, will be the first feature film produced from this deal.
Warner Bros. has been trying to get the ball rolling on a Black Superman story for years. In 2019, Michael B. Jordan tried, but did not get very far into his proposal. There is hope though with rumors abound that Jordan might get to play the superhero icon. However, no one has yet been selected to play this new Superman.
The Man of Steel hasn’t graced the silver screen since the DCU’s Justice League in 2017, and Henry Cavill has been playing the Kryptonian since 2013’s Man of Steel. Despite Superman’s character being arguably the most iconic superhero in comic book history, the possibility for a fresh perspective in the DCU is bright.
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