A Black Superman could have a great cultural impact in the Black/Urban community but only if they market it well. But DC's lack of development for Cyborg and Black Lightning even though he has 3 seasons on tv and numerous tv appearances for the former, proves that they just are not willing to put in the work to make these characters popular culturally. In the comic book industry they would say that the marketing budget just isn't there. But I think it's just a lack of caring. Black Panther benefited from word of mouth from Black readers before the movie came out. How are they going to get word of mouth out for a black Superman who isn't Calvin or Val Zod? I'm not sure making him Black will be good enough initially. Unless of course it's Denzel Washington in the lead. If that's the case then all bets are off.
I think that this is how WB goes about what films get the green light-based on if the film can generate excitement. Maybe the Cyborg film was cancelled in part because Ray Fisher is still an somewhat unknown character compared to someone like Jason Momoa who was in GOT and Gal Gadot and The Rock who's mostly known for the Fast and Furious franchise. If I was the casting director for the upcoming Green Lantern I would cast Danny Trejo as a White Lantern. This casting would probably generate excitement even though he's almost 80. But that didn't stop Keaton from being in the Flash. Tom Cruise as Hal Jordan and maybe an unknown for John Stewart. Of course Trejo shouldn't be Kyle Rayner maybe just his Grand Father.
Regina King would be interesting. Barry Jenkins though, that'd be a coup.
If DC were serious about having cultural impact with Black people then they would be making an Icon film and working on a Milestone Cinematic Universe, instead of lazily palette swapping Kal-El.
Am I reading it right? They are really going to make Clark black instead of using Calvin or Val?
T'Challa
A.K.A. The Black Panther
King of Wakanda
King of the Dead and The Champion of Bast
Two-Time Time Magazine "Person Of The Year"
Six-Time People Magazine "Sexiest Man Alive"
Honestly there really wasn’t a chance of it being anything else. Clark is the one with all the iconic stories, and lore, and supporting characters. Calvin is awesome but he’s extremely political in a way I don’t think WB would want to touch, and Val is basically a non-entity, he doesn’t even have a civilian identity or a normal human upbringing. No it has to be Clark, and I’m betting the main villain will be Lex. It’s far better than what Snyder had planned for the character, but it’s still not something that is really getting me interested. Long as I have a good TV show though they can do what they want, I’ve given up on ever getting a good Superman film.
With this they’re just chasing Marvel with BP and SamCap yet again, time will tell if this attempt ends any better. I doubt it’s going to do BP numbers though.
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BP was lightning in the bottle in terms of timing, character, approach, and a whole host of other reasons that I don't think can ever be replicated.
Chasing what Marvel has done has never really worked out all that well for WB, but I don't expect them to change their tune any time soon.
I'm actually kind of relieved it's still Clark.
After the underwhelming responses to the last two takes on him, if this movie turned out to be a hit AND it was either Calvin or Val-Zod, we could kiss Clark goodbye for a while as far as films go. They'd have found a way to ditch the character but keep the logo to make money off of it
Oh I definitely agree. It's so transparent. A Vixen or Icon or John Stewart movie (even if he's paired with Hal as a "buddy cop" feature) practically gives them that money gift wrapped if they handled it well, or at least give them the chance to have a modest hit of their own. But sometimes it seems like WB is run by out of touch aliens who overlook the obvious.
Last edited by Amadeus Arkham; 05-05-2021 at 11:07 AM.
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