Michael B. Jordan Being Considered For New Superman, But 'Supergirl' Is WB's Current Priority

Word just broke that Henry Cavill will no longer play Superman for Warner Bros. Now that Cavill is out, who will be the next Man of Steel? Warners is reportedly interested taking the character in a completely different direction, and have considered Michael B. Jordan for the part. For now, however, the studio remains focused on Supergirl.

Could a Michael B. Jordan Superman movie happen? It's a distinct possibility, at least according to Deadline. In the wake of Henry Cavill hanging up his red cape, Deadline says Warner Bros. "has been mulling a completely different direction with its Superman canon for some time, even considering casting Michael B. Jordan in the role down the road."

This is big – if this happened, Jordan would be the first black Superman to appear in live-action. That said, the idea isn't unprecedented. A black Superman already exists in the comics: Calvin Ellis is the Man of Steel (and also the President of the United States) on another Earth in DC's multiverse. The character is modeled in part on former President Barack Obama, but his origin story is similar to the classic Superman: Calvin is a Kryptonian sent to Earth where he's raised by a human couple and develops his superpowers thanks to Earth's sun. From here, though, the character's path diverges, as he eventually grows up to become President. Once in power, Calvin has to balance his superpowers with his political powers.

Should Warners decide to cast Jordan, however, I imagine they won't bother with multiverses and will instead have the actor playing Clark Kent. Still, an alternate dimension Superman would certainly be an exciting way to mix things up. All of this is speculation for now, though. In fact, Warners isn't even actively developing a new Superman at this time. Instead, they're focused on Supergirl. The Supergirl film was announced to be in development in August, with 22 Jump Street writer Oren Uziel working on the script. This Supergirl movie will reportedly be its own thing, and not be associated with the Supergirl TV show starring Melissa Benoist.

As for Superman, we're just going to have to wait and see what happens to the character. I think Cavill could've made a great Superman...in someone else's hands. Unfortunately, Warners failed to really let Cavill's take on the character take flight, and now he's moving on. Replacing Cavill with Michael B. Jordan would be incredibly exciting, and different. I'm not naive – I know that a subset of toxic fandom would have big problems with this casting for a variety of wrongheaded reasons. To them I say: buzz off. Jordan is a fantastic actor, and he already has established superhero movie cred, having appeared in Black Panther (and also Fantastic Four, but we can ignore that).

Of course, none of this is official, and probably won't be for some time. There's no indication Jordan has been offered the part in any capacity. And even if the actor is eventually offered the role, there's always a chance he might not want the part. For now, let's chalk this up to wishful thinking and see what happens.