Variety reports tonight that Michael B. Jordan is getting back into the superhero movie business, with the Chronicle and Black Panther star signing on to serve as producer on a Static Shock movie. The most high-profile product from Milestone Comics—founded in association with DC Comics back in 1993, with Black creators like Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, Derek T. Dingle, and the late Dwayne McDuffie leading the charge—Static previously served as the basis for a well-remembered animated series on The WB, back when The WB was still a thing.
“I’m proud to be a part of building a new universe centered around Black superheroes; our community deserves that,” Jordan said in a statement; the actor is producing the film through his Outlier Society production banner, which is based at Warner Bros. The film was previously—sort of—announced back at DC’s FanDome event in August by comics writer Reginald Hudlin (who revived the mostly defunct Milestone brands in 2015), although at the time it wasn’t clear if he was talking about an actual project in development, or just one that he was hoping to get off the ground.
No more confusion now, though: Static—a.k.a. Virgil Hawkins, a teen who finds himself granted electromagnetic powers after a run-in with (wouldn’t you know it) radiation—now has the backing of Jordan, whose Hollywood track record is running pretty firmly toward “Gets to make whatever he wants” at the moment. In addition to his star power, Jordan also served as a producer on 2018's Creed II, and will serve as same on the film’s still-planned sequel in 2021.