Earlier this week, the Man of Steel soared back onto television on Superman & Lois — the first “tights and flights” live-action Superman series since Lois & Clark hit the airwaves in 1993. Now, Warner Bros. is charting the character’s flight path back to movie theaters.
In news that sped around the internet faster than a speeding bullet, acclaimed author and noted comic book fan Ta-Nehisi Coates has been hired to pen the screenplay for an all-new Superman feature produced by J.J. Abrams, that may introduce the first big-screen Black Superman.
“To be invited into the DC Extended Universe by Warner Bros., DC Films and Bad Robot is an honor,” Coates remarked in an exclusive statement provided to the website Shadow and Act. “I look forward to meaningfully adding to the legacy of America’s most iconic mythic hero.”
“There is a new, powerful, and moving Superman story yet to be told,” Abrams said in a separate statement. “We couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with the brilliant Mr. Coates to help bring that story to the big screen, and we’re beyond thankful to the team at Warner Bros. for the opportunity.” In addition to being Coates’s first superhero screenplay, this is also the first time he’s written a DC character. He previously made his comic book debut at Marvel, spearheading a hugely successful relaunch of Black Panther in 2016, followed by a run on Captain America from 2018 to 2020.
The film represents a homecoming of sorts for Abrams, who signed a mega-deal with WarnerMedia in 2019. Back in 2002, the studio nearly gave the green light to his screenplay Superman: Flyby, a ground-up franchise reboot that famously took the Superman mythos in controversial directions. Brett Ratner was hired to direct the film, and Brendan Fraser was among the actors considered to inherent Christopher Reeve’s mantle as Clark Kent and Superman. ♦
(The story originally published by Yahoo Entertainment)
