There have been rumours that Michael B. Jordan might be suiting up as the Man of Steel for some time, but the actor has typically denied them. Although Jordan won't be taking to the skies for the Ta-Nehisi Coates penned Superman movie, it's possible he may be involved in a separate Superman project.
According to Collider, Michael B. Jordan and his production company Outlier Society are "developing their own Black Superman project for HBO Max that centers on the Val-Zod incarnation of the character." Collider's sources say that an unnamed writer is currently working on the script and that the project is being developed as a limited-series for HBO Max. Michael B. Jordan will produce the project and Collider states that he may also star in the series, but hasn't officially committed to that aspect just yet. While the Superman movie written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and produced by J.J. Abrams will be reimagined version of the Clark Kent character, Jordan's project will be centered around Val-Zod, a Kryptonian from Earth-2 whose parents were executed by the Kryptonian court and who took later on the mantle of Superman upon his arrival on Earth.
According to Jamie Broadnax of Black Girl Nerds, Michael B. Jordan was once involved with Warner Bros. in developing a Superman movie but apparently didn't want to "engage in conversations about racebending Kal-El for the same reasons many of the fans are pushing back on the current Warner Bros. re-imagined version of Clark Kent, but that he would be interested in engaging on a Black Superman project centering on the Val-Zod storyline." Broadnax went on to explain that it was tone-deaf of Warner Bros. to "racebend a white character and erase Black characters that already exist in the DC universe under the Superman banner — Calvin Ellis and Val-Zod."
