The success of Joker seems to have lit a fire under Warner Bros. as they’re busy exploring all sorts of interesting takes on DC heroes. Over the last few days, we’ve heard that they’d like to make an adaptation of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman starring Jon Hamm, a movie set on Krypton about Superman’s family and are proceeding with a Joker sequel.
Now, we’ve gotten word from our sources – the same ones who told us Robert Pattinson had beaten out Nicholas Hoult for the role of Batman, and that Black Mask will be gay in Birds of Prey – that they’re exploring the prospect of making a Superboy movie based on the Conner Kent version of the character introduced in 1993’s The Return of Superman arc.
Said film will apparently be part of the ‘new’ DCEU, which will debut with The Batman and continue in Supergirl. It’s difficult to say how much of a connection this will have to the existing DCEU, but if they’re doing the Conner Kent story, it indicates to me that they’re ready to discard everything and start fresh.
Though Superboy has long had a presence in DC Comics as simply the younger version of Superman, this specific incarnation first appeared in the wake of The Death of Superman. In the 1990s he was a young, brash, leather jacket and round sunglasses wearing hero, demanding to be called Superman rather than Superboy. The character was eventually revealed to have been a genetically engineered hybrid of Superman and Lex Luthor’s DNA though and he then went on to become a fan favorite for his appearances in various Teen Titans media and (despite dying in Infinite Crisis) has been around in one form or another ever since.
Thing is, though, we’ve just seen a pretty damn good live-action retelling of his origin over the second season of Titans. Played by Joshua Orpin, we watched him struggle with the memories of both Lex Luthor and Superman, as well as his new powers. I guess Warner Bros. have relaxed their strict policy of never having more than one live-action version of a character at once though and as soon as we learn more about this Superboy project, we’ll be sure to let you know.
