In May this year, reports emerged that DC Comics were interested in the incarnation of Superman featuring a Black actor. Since then Michael B. Jordan has been at the centre of all the conversations surrounding the Last Son of Krypton.
However, Jordan then denied all the rumours and said he wasn’t looking to involve himself in the film. But now it seems the Hollywood actor is interested in Superman after all, although he is working on his separate project for HBO Max.
Jordan and his production company, Outlier Society, have hired a writer for a Superman title on HBO Max, which will be a limited series, according to a report from Collider.
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Reportedly, Ta-Nehisi Coates was writing a Superman film for J.J. Abrams and Warner Bros., and the project would be centred around a Black version of the superhero. But Jordan wasn’t interested in the Abrams/Coates project.
Unlike the earlier project, the one Jordan is working on now, will focus on the character of Val-Zod, another Superman from the comics who has always been depicted as Black.
According to sources close to Black Girl Nerds, Jordan believed that simply casting a Black actor to play Kal-El (a.k.a Superman) would take away from a character like Val-Zod, who was created to be a Black character from the very beginning.
So it’s likely that Jordan didn’t want to be part of a project that he didn’t believe in and has decided to set the wheels in motion himself, bringing to life his own Superman-verse.
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Jordan will be producing the new project for Outlier and HBO Max. However, whether Jordan would star as the Man of Steel in the new series or someone else would don the red cape is yet to see.
In addition to the various projects he’s producing, Jordan will make his directorial debut with the upcoming Creed III, where he will also be reprising his on-screen role of Adonis Creed.