In a Wall Street Journal report titled “Saving a Studio? This Looks Like a Job for Superman!” — fairly standard rundown of the stakes surrounding James Gunn’s “Superman” reboot and what it represents for the future of DC Studios and Warner Bros. Discovery.
However, buried in the piece is one genuinely amusing detail — a little anecdote about David Zaslav, the embattled CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Three years ago, acclaimed writer Ta-Nehisi Coates had written a black Superman movie set in the civil rights era for Warner Bros. The studio was fully committed to it, and even planned to hire a “black director” to helm the project, with Barry Jenkins and Ryan Coogler’s names having been rumored back in the day.
Since then, the project has gone completely quiet. Some held out hope it was still in the works, while others were certain it had been quietly scrapped. Now, at last, we have some clarity.
Per WSJ, in April 2022, Zaslav took over as CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, and reportedly wanted nothing to do with the project — dismissing it behind closed doors as “too woke.” That was the end of that.
If Coates’ Black Superman movie were released in 2025, public reaction would likely be deeply polarized, shaped by a mix of cultural, and political expectations — a lightning rod in the endless “woke vs. anti-woke” discourse.
The script, reportedly still owned by WB, sits on a shelf somewhere, unread by audiences and unseen by fans. James Gunn and Peter Safran could technically dust it off and reignite it, but with Zaslav around, that’s not going to happen.
While James L. Brooks teased last year that "we'll soon be seeing" Jack Nicholson, 89, act again, and that he was "reading scripts," that idea has now been shut down by his close friend Michael Douglas, 82.