I’m excited for Warner Brother’s New Superman

It has been reported that Warner Brother’s has hired Ta-Nehisi Coates to write for a new Superman film. Additional details claim that they are also searching for a Black director and a Black actor to star as Superman. However, there’s seems to be a lot of negative reactions to this news and I can’t help but feel like folks are overreacting. Yet here I am writing about it so perhaps I’m the one overreacting. Nevertheless I think Warner Brother’s plan for a Black Superman is step in the right direction even if it is small and long overdue.

The main criticism I’m seeing for this plan is that it’s insincere for Warner Brother’s to take this approach. People who hold this belief don’t see this plan as a commitment to be inclusive. Instead they see it as shameless way to appeal to people of color and folks with liberal views in order to be as profitable as possible. Personally I don’t think the approach is any more cynical than any other large film project in Hollywood. Wanting to appeal to as many people as possible to be as successful as possible has always been inherent to the idea of “blockbuster” films. So if films that take extensive budgets to make will always try to maximize profit I’m pleased to see them promote inclusivity along the way.

Some people have also tried to point to Marvel’s recent successes with Black Panther, Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse and The Falcon And The Winter Soldier as a reason for Warner Brother’s to push inclusivity and maybe there is some truth to that, but movies becoming more diverse is a larger trend not isolated to superhero films. If anything, I’d argue that DC trying to keep up with Marvel could have influenced these plans in a less shameful but more indirect way. I think that DC rushing into Batman vs Superman and Justice League to compete with Marvel’s Avengers and it stopped them telling better, self contained stories with Henry Cavill’s awesome take on Superman. Thus potentially making it logical to introduce a different take on Superman even if the planned film is set to be a stand alone feature at this time.

Beyond that though, in regards to the the doubt of DC’s sincerity about diversity there are other details some folks are getting hung up on that are worth discussing. Rumours claim that this take on Superman will have its Superman (Kal-El), be played by a Black actor. However Black Supermen already exist in DC comics (Val-Zod and Calvin Ellis), so some wonder why those characters weren’t chosen instead. I think it would be great if Warner Brother’s took these concerns, although I’m not sure if they will. I have a decent amount of DC knowledge yet I didn’t know about these characters, so I feel that most moviegoers wouldn’t either. Admittedly, it’s not totally necessary for the audience to have prior knowledge of the characters of the film, but coming back to the idea of mass appeal, the film is more likely to go with Kal-El.

On the other hand, an opinion I’m less fond of is that DC should not make Kal-El Black and should focus on portraying existing Black characters or creating new ones. To me this is essentially a false dichotomy, superhero media is not a niche market anymore so there is no reason why Kal-El being Black should stop other heroes of color being in the spotlight as well. I also would like to point out that some people thought or still think similarly about comic characters like Miles Morales, Calvin Ellis and John Steward. Again the idea was that there shouldn’t be a Black Spider-Man, Superman or Green Lantern because they should make new heroes, but not only did these characters became very popular but their existence didn’t prevent totally new Black characters from being created. With that in mind, I hope other forms of superhero media can do both as well.

As I consider all this I feel excited for DC’s plans for Superman. Admittedly I can’t speak for what underrepresented communities want to see in media. However, as someone who is used to seeing superheroes that look like me I can’t help but want others to have the same experience.