Michael B. Jordan‘s previously untitled Black Superman project has confirmed two things: its title, and its writers.
The film is now going by Val Zod, and it’s been confirmed that the HBO Max limited series will be written by Darnell Metayer and Josh Peters. Jordan’s company Outlier Society will produce for DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. TV.
So, what is Val Zod? Okay, deep breath: in the comics, Val-Zod donned the mantle of Superman thanks to the DC multiverse on Earth-2 (introduced during the New 52-era) with his first appearance being in 2014’s Earth 2 #19. He possesses the same powers as Clark Kent and hails from the same planet of Krypton, and also finds refuge on Earth.
At one point, he actually battles an Earth-2 version of Superman that has been brainwashed by Darkseid, although this is later revealed to be a clone of the original Kal-El. Got it? It’s unclear if this project will follow any of the comic book storylines or whether Val Zod the character is just being used as a baseline for the series.
Despite significant buzz around the series, Jordan has not yet committed to taking on the lead role himself, even though fans are clamouring for it. Fingers crossed that he does come to his senses and decide to star, although his triple threat role of director/star/producer on the in-development Creed III may make things difficult.
Metayar and Peters recently worked on the upcoming seventh Transformers movie, Rise Of The Beasts, due out next year.
Their pilot for Hannibal – not a reboot of the Lector series but based on the Carthaginian general and statesman – was recently picked up by Apple with Rise Of The Beasts director Steven Caple Jr. at the helm. They also penned the script for Sam Raimi‘s new film, The Nola.
Val Zod is one of a number of DC projects in the works for HBO Max. The others include a Black Canary movie from Lovecraft Country‘s Misha Green with Jurnee Smollett reprising her Birds Of Prey role/
A Batgirl movie starring In The Heights lead Leslie Grace with Brendan Fraser as the villain, which is reportedly Firefly, is also in the works.
Val Zod still feels a way off but it will likely be the biggest project of the bunch, especially if Jordan does indeed star. Expect plenty of buzz and leaked information around the project over the next year.
#Peace.Love.ValZod
