Michael B. Jordan’s production company Outlier Society is reportedly developing their own ‘Black Superman’ project for HBO Max reports Collider.
The outlet indicates Outlier Society has hired a writer (currently unknown) who is working on a script which centers on the Val-Zod incarnation of the character and is being planned in the form of a limited series that Jordan will produce and possibly star in, though he apparently has yet to commit on the latter.
The project is separate from the previously reported on Black Superman movie in the works at Warner Bros. Pictures and Bad Robot which is expected to follow the Kal-El/Clark Kent version of the character.
Author and cultural critic Ta-Nehisi Coates is working on the script for that project which is expected to cast both a Black actor as Clark Kent and likely be directed by a Black filmmaker. Jordan did work with Warners on developing a Black Superman movie at one point, but shot down rumors earlier this year he would be involved in Abrams’ new film.
The Collider piece ties into an editorial at Black Girl Nerds which offered more context as their sources say:
“Jordan has not wanted to engage in conversations about racebending Kal-El for the same reasons many of the fans are pushing back on the current Warner Bros. re-imagined version of Clark Kent, but that he would be interested in engaging on a Black Superman project centering on the Val-Zod storyline.”
That piece then offers some editorial better explaining things – suggesting the Warners version is trying to “racebend a white character and erase Black characters that already exist in the DC universe under the Superman banner – Calvin Ellis and Val-Zod.”
In the comics Val-Zod is the Superman from Earth 2, where he is one of the last Kryptonians, and the second to assume the mantle of Superman.
The character was orphaned after his parents were executed by Krypton’s high court, though he was found on Earth 2 by Terry Sloan, who offered the young alien asylum to “protect” him from the outside world.
Jordan is currently prepping his directorial debut “Creed III” and developing a “Static Shock” movie for Warner Bros. and a remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair{ for MGM and AGBO.
