Since news broke in February 2021 that J.J. Abrams and Ta-Nehisi Coates were working on a Superman reboot, plot details of the potential action movie, and whether it will involve the first Black Superman have been sparse.
However, after a year of silence and concerns that the project might be shelved, Jeff Sneider, a journalist at The Ankler, has claimed on Twitter that Coates has very nearly finished a screenplay for the film. He writes: “Speaking of Superman, The Ankler hears that Ta-Nehisi Coates will be turning in a draft of his screenplay… soon.”
Coates, who has previously written issues of Black Panther and Captain America for Marvel Comics, is taking on writing responsibilities for the movie while Abrams is set to produce under his Bad Robot company. As for the director of the movie, The Hollywood Reporter claim that Warner Bros insiders are looking for a Black director to lead the reboot, saying that Abrams taking on directing responsibilities in this case would be “tone deaf.”
Not a lot else is known about the film, but according to Screen Rant, this Superman is still set to be called Kal-El, with its story being set in the 20th century. However, it’s worth noting that in the DC comics, Calvin Ellis, the comic’s first Black Superman as well as the President of the United States, has the Kryptonian name Kal-El, with his Earth name also being an obvious anagram for Kal-El.
Yet, his story takes place in an alternate universe to Clark Kent — his Earth is called Earth-23 — so it remains to be seen whether or they will try and tie this new Superman to Henry Cavill’s iteration in the DCEU, or will go down the route of The Batman and Joker by going it alone in their own movie independent of the DCEU.
Speaking of SUPERMAN, @TheAnkler hears that Ta-Nehisi Coates will be turning in a draft of his screenplay… soon. 👀 https://t.co/Dnlb1luPj5
— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) April 11, 2022
Michael B Jordan’s limited HBO Max series, which will see Val Zod, a Kryptonian from Earth 2 debut as Black Superman, is also in the works, so it seems unlikely that this new movie will involve Val Zod’s story. We will keep you updated as we learn more!