Michael B. Jordan To Produce Warner Bros. And DC's 'Static Shock'

[Outsiders]

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Michael B. Jordan is now attached to Warner Bros. and DC’s Static Shock as a producer.  Jordan is joining Reginald Hudlin on the feature project that was first revealed during August's DC FanDome event and will produce via Outlier Society, his Warners-based banner.

“I’m proud to be a part of building a new universe centered around black superheroes; our community deserves that,” said Jordan.  “Outlier Society is committed to bringing to life diverse comic book content across all platforms and we are excited to partner with Reggie and Warner Bros on this initial step.”
 

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The project centers on Static, who first appeared in 1993's Static no. 1 via Milestone Comics, a now-defunct company founded by Black writers and artists to help make comics a more inclusive space and which had distribution through DC.

A decade later the hero was revived for the Static Shock animated series, centering on Virgil Hawkins, a teenager who transforms into a superhero who gains electromagnetic powers after being exposed to strange gas.  The hero made his way to the mainstream DC Comics universe in 2008.

DC is relaunching Milestone with Hudlin, now a partner in the label, at the center of it. He is writing an all-new Static Shock digital comic series beginning in Feb. 2021, as well as an additional Static Shock graphic novel by Hudlin, with art by Kyle Baker. A series reviving Icon and Rocket, by Hudlin and Milestone founder Denys Cowan, are also in the works.

 

 

[Satam]

Sad that Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III aren't alive for this. I'd like to think they'd be very much involved if they were.

[silverback77346]

Good news, now I better dig up my old collection of Static comics from the 90's and get the old scent back. I kind of let my comic book collection shut down once I became a full time action figure collector. 

[mako]

Yes, that's the way to do it! DC has a rich collection of African-American characters, many of whom were created by African-American creators, to choose from. There really is no need for "black-facing" characters of other races.

Give me Static, give me Black Lightning (better than the TV series), give me Vixen, take another pass at Steel; these are great characters with great stories to tell. We don't need to paint Hawkman black. That's just demeaning to everybody.

[tycondrius24]

this is interesting . hope it does well . though I hope the rumors who they where looking to cast are just that rumors as a while back I heard they where looking at Jayden smith to play Static and I was like no way that kid can't act ,there are so many other better actors out there .

[ghostbogey]

Yeah....

I kind of remember this comic from 93....

This has my interest already. Will be waiting to see...

how the "Static" develops =^)

[mako]

I never read the comic. Mostly I was just into the cartoon, especially the second season on. The show as a whole had its rough spots, but they actually managed to fix a couple things that turned me off the whole Dakota-verse originally.

Sadly, I don't see any of the 'toons better qualities carrying over to the movie.

[SpiderS]

19 hours ago, Satam said:

Sad that Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III aren't alive for this. I'd like to think they'd be very much involved if they were.

Yeah exactly, that's really heartbreaking to realize. I wonder what direction they gonna take, one that was close to original comic books or animted tv show

[Belmont13]

Cool, I remember the show from my Saturday morning cartoons days.

[mako]

1 hour ago, SpiderS said:

Yeah exactly, that's really heartbreaking to realize. I wonder what direction they gonna take, one that was close to original comic books or animted tv show

There's always hope, but I'm pretty sure we all know what direction this is going to take.

[Blurr86]

On 10/18/2020 at 10:13 AM, mako said:

Yes, that's the way to do it! DC has a rich collection of African-American characters, many of whom were created by African-American creators, to choose from. There really is no need for "black-facing" characters of other races.

Give me Static, give me Black Lightning (better than the TV series), give me Vixen, take another pass at Steel; these are great characters with great stories to tell. We don't need to paint Hawkman black. That's just demeaning to everybody.

Yes. Keep Hawkman as he is. Love Hawkman & Hawkgirl (@McFarlane -- action figs pls!) The way Static was should be kept as is... though I'm hoping the story continues while he was a kid--the tv show was filled with good lessons for kids. Stoke to have @McFarlane create a Static figure... the kid one pls!!!

[kILLMonger]

Glad we'll see Static on the big screen....hopefully close to the same time Miles Morales appears in the MCU.  I'd be glad see this springboard bringing Milestone to the big screen and pushed Marvel to break out Blue Marvel to counter Icon.

To salty basic people....it's been covered already.  Hawkman should have been Black from the beginning. DC is catching up (finally) to reality that is he was originally Egyptian...he's Black.  If y'all want to be butthurt....Superfriends is still around for you all to watch and get you white Hawkman itch scratched.  "Don't need to paint Hawkman Black"  smh stop with the causal bigotry.  What you think God scribbled on Black people with a sharpie?  It's not demeaning to anyone except crappy people who are mad at the reality that everyone doesn't look like them and that studios are realizing that it's good when other ethnicities can identify with characters.

Hopefully McFarlane will go full bore into Milestone because I've been waiting for a Hardware and Icon since the 90s.    

[kILLMonger]

On 10/17/2020 at 9:13 PM, mako said:

Yes, that's the way to do it! DC has a rich collection of African-American characters, many of whom were created by African-American creators, to choose from. There really is no need for "black-facing" characters of other races.

Give me Static, give me Black Lightning (better than the TV series), give me Vixen, take another pass at Steel; these are great characters with great stories to tell. We don't need to paint Hawkman black. That's just demeaning to everybody.

Sadly no Marvel/DC Black characters where created by Black people until Milestone.  Even the most popular Black character (Spawn) was created by a white guy and said white guy intentionally kept him masked/had him burned so white readers would "forget" Al Simmons was Black.  Try again

That's why Hawkman was white...because for the longest...white people peddled this stupid notion that they were Egyptians despite copious hieroglyphics showing otherwise.  All Dwayne Johnson did was correct an error the white creators made.  It's really not hard.

Static Shock was awesome.

Black Lightning is pretty good....especially compared to alot of the Arrowverse stuff.  Not perfect but better than what it should be.  I get why you probably don't like it...because some of the social commentary probably grinds against your worldview.

Steel deserved better than Shaq.

Will Smith was a better Deadshot than the comic version and I'm all for a new Black Deadshot since the comic Floyd is dead now.

Idris Elba will kill it as Bloodsport

John Stewart deserves some shine.

Hawkman will work better as a Black dude...because they can tie into his past as royalty and where Black people are now.  There can be a good story there.  If they were going with the Thanagar Katar Hal I'd maybe understand.  But it looks like they are going with Khufu/Carter Hall....so despite what you are say...it does make sense.

How about you dial down the bias and see what happens?  If it sucks I'll be right there with you blasting it for story related reasons.  But taking this casual bigoted trope you've been on is just foolish and says more about you than anything.

 

[Blurr86]

"As is" -- referring to Hawkman-- may not mean color or race of any sort. I'm not particularly a 'common' color you see in the states. This forum is international, ain't it? Unlike in the United States and some other countries color determination or race is a big thing. From where I am, we yawn at it.  So Good morning to all races, genders and whatever aesthete you prefer!