Article Claims Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav Shelved JJ Abrams And Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Black Superman Movie For Being Too Woke
We have received confirmation about the fate of the Elseworld’s Superman movie with a Black protagonist that’s reportedly been in development at Warner Bros. It sounds like the film, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and produced by JJ Abrams, has gone the way of Krypton because the man at the very top wasn’t impressed with it.
A piece by The Wall Street Journal, titled “Saving a Studio? This Looks Like a Job for Superman!” which is about how James Gunn’s Superman is the ray of hope that will potentially save DC’s bacon, says Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav “dismissed” the Abrams/Coates joint on the account it was “too woke.”
The WSJ cites “people familiar with the matter” who also told them “Gunn and Safran could still try to make the movie in the future.” While that leaves a door or window open a crack for the idea, it appears anecdotally open-and-shut that the project will never move forward.
From the time it was announced, the Coates/Abrams version of the Man of Steel had few details to show for itself beyond who was behind it and what they had planned. There were also almost no concrete updates during the nearly five years the thing was supposedly brewing.
After only one year, the late Mikey Sutton of Geekosity informed the world that the project was “cold turkey,” and that was in 2022. All Sutton heard was that Coates didn’t have a script, but miraculously, Warner Bros. was going to deliver something Oscar-worthy (or thought they were) with no story in place.
The only thing they had was the desire for more social commentary: the kind alluded to by the WSJ and that anyone brave enough to watch Ironheart is suffering through.
What’s more, the then Warner regime’s singular focus to get the film made allegedly put Henry Cavill in a box, and the struggle to get him back for Black Adam in the flesh was a real one. That’s according to Dwayne Johnson’s telling of events, at least. “We fought for years to bring (Cavill) back,” Johnson said in late ‘22. “They always said no.
By 2023, the project was considered canceled by scoopers who were confident in that news. However, as late as last year, James Gunn was saying the movie is still in development, along with other Elseworlds projects, “actively happening.” The Batman 2 and Dynamic Duo fall into that category, by the way, and we’re all well aware of their slow progress.
As WSJ noted, the BIPOC Superman could fly again one day, but if James Gunn and Peter Safran likely don’t want a competing Kryptonian and Zaslav wants less wokeness, the odds are slim.
You have to remember also that this concept might hinge on the involvement and sway of JJ Abrams, who is no longer a factor at DC or Warner Bros., especially now, as his latest series, Duster, was just canceled at HBO after merely one season.
