James Gunn’s “Superman: Legacy” will be the first film of his and Peter Safran’s new DC Universe initiative. The script is written, and work is underway to get the film ready to shoot early next year for a mid-2025 release.
However, io9 has confirmed that the film won’t be the only take on the character that’s in the works – the Ta-Nehisi Coates-written and J.J. Abrams-produced take on the property is still very much alive.
That film has been in development for several years and has existed as a standalone project in its own universe – not connected to any other DC films or series.
Reports have been that it’s an early 20th Century period tale with a black Superman and will follow the classic story of the Kryptonian child Kal-El sent to Earth and growing up as Clark Kent.
Gunn, out doing promotion for Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” says that the film is still in play:
“Those two things are totally unrelated. That’s an exciting movie. I know that Chantal Nong, who is the executive on that project, is extremely excited about it. So if it comes in and it’s great, which I haven’t read the script, and if the timing is right, that could absolutely happen. That’s totally unrelated. It would be an Elseworlds tale like Joker.”
That means the film would join Matt Reeves’ “The Batman Part Two” and Todd Phillips’s “Joker Folie à Deux”, which are being dubbed ‘Elseworlds’ tales that aren’t connected to the new DCU continuity.
Coates’ script was supposed to have been done by the end of 2021, but it’s unclear what shape the script is in. Previously Michael B. Jordan shot down reports that indicated he was up for the role.
