The restructuring of DC Studios continues as one more project in the works for a few years, but with very little traction, justifies the chopping block. A source for scoops has determined that the standalone race-bent Superman written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and produced by JJ Abrams is no longer moving forward despite reports claiming it was still in development.
Twitter scooper ThwipT shared the terse intel concerning the untitled project in a recent post. “Coates’ black Superman film has been canceled at DC,” the user wrote accompanied by the hashtags DC, DCU, DCEU, and Superman. Although there have been few updates or clarifications by the account since this tweet was sent, ThwipT swears they only share scoops the user is confident about.
The tweet caught the attention of another noteworthy outlet, Cosmic Book News purveyor Matt McGloin, who is now keeping his eye on the story. We know this for a fact because he retweeted the scoop with the very telling emoji of eyes, indicating he is paying attention and will no doubt follow up on this himself.
But seriously, McGloin is doing more than keeping an eye on the scoop as he affirmed it in his own thread about the story as something he heard a year ago. “I think it was axed a while ago. Was told that last year at Comic Con,” he tweeted. With the accuracy of his inside sources of late, it’s possible McGloin heard the truth.
Time has proven him right about James Gunn masterminding a reboot of DC. McGloin caught wind of a variation of this outcome occurring as far back as San Diego Comic-Con 2019. However, he still shows caution in this case. “Yeah, said again. That Twitter account does seem to give some legit scoops. Cross your fingers!” he wrote in a reply.
Coates and Abrams’ Black Superman story, probably a variant of Elseworlds’ Calvin Ellis, was a remnant of the Walter Hamada days at DC Films where chaos reigned supreme. The landscape seen today in the fallout of his exit is his doing to a degree. He shares the blame with other WB executives but nevertheless, juggling new ideas with keepsakes from the DCEU didn’t work out.
A report from December 2022 in Variety claimed the film was still on the table. The outlet detailed that sources said the new Gunn project will not replace the previously announced J.J. Abrams-Ta-Nehisi Coates Superman concept (which is still in active development).”
DC Studios CEO James Gunn more recently claimed the film could continue in an Elseworlds fashion while speaking with Gizmodo in April.
Gunn first noted that his Superman: Legacy film and Coates’ film were “unrelated, “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,” Gunn explained.
What do you make of this latest rumor?