Superman (created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster) has been appearing in almost every medium since 1938 when his first comic was released.
The character has certainly changed many times since his inception over 80 years ago, and Warner Bros. was looking to make another change on the big screen. Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Black Panther), met with WB earlier this year to discuss his ideas for Superman but due to their lack of commitment to the character, Jordan backed out, according to Variety.
The lack of a script and the delayed production date caused him to step away and that’s not mentioning Henry Cavill’s interest and enthusiasm in remaining as the iconic hero. While many casual fans may not be happy with a race change for a character that has been predominantly portrayed by a white male, there has been a Superman in the multiverse of DC that is African American: Calvin Ellis.
On his world, he operates as the president of the United States while still being Superman. It’s not too much of a stretch to think that Michael B. Jordan was diving into the comics looking for a fresh take on the character for the movies. While this obviously isn’t going to happen anytime in the near future (unless WB has something planned behind the scenes that haven’t been leaked or released yet), it’s still an interesting idea.
That’s not all that’s changed, as over the years the hero has undergone many alterations from the golden to the modern age of comics. Superman has battled alongside other Supermen from Earths in the multiverse and even fought his doppleganger ‘Ultraman’ from Earth 3 (a part of the multiverse where all the heroes from Earth 1 have an alternate villain version and the Earth 1 villains are the heroes), and even died when saving the world from Doomsday.
Those are just the main continuity stories – that’s not even including all the elseworld stories that DC has published over the years ranging from Kal-El crash landing on Apokolips and being raised by the villain Darkseid (Superman: The Dark Side), to landing in Russia (Superman: Red Son), and even being raised by the Wayne family, being Batman instead of Bruce who passed away (Superman: Speeding Bullets).
None of us knows whether Michael B Jordan was going to take over the role in the main DC movie universe, or if he was discussing an elseworld story. Either way, nothing came from this meeting between Jordan and WB, So as of now, fans are still left to speculate who’s going to play the man of steel in the near future, but maybe he’ll play the Superman president one day.
Also read: Who could play Superman in the DCEU?
Do you think Jordan would be a good fit? What elseworld stories do you want to see on the big screen? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
