DC FanDome: Warner Bros considering 'Static Shock' movie

Warner Bros is in “serious conversations” about bringing African-American superhero Static to the big screen as part of the DC Comics revival of the Milestone brand.

Founded in 1993, Milestone sought to amplify people of colour in the comic book industry, both in terms of creators and the characters on the page.

Static, armed with an arsenal of electromagnetic powers, was introduced in 1993 and was heavily inspired by Spider-Man.

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He was the star of the animated TV series Static Shock, which aired for four seasons between 2000 and 2004.

Filmmaker Reginald Hudlin, who is involved in DC’s relaunch of Milestone, revealed during a DC FanDome panel that talks are underway about bringing Static to the big screen.

“We’re in serious conversations about, as we’re launching the comic book series, developing the Static Shock movie — that will be a theatrical feature film,” he said.

He added: “We’re talking with other divisions at Warner Bros, even those in animated about doing feature films, and we’re also involved in extending the Milestone characters into new media, like podcasts with a series of stories on podcast.

“We want to deliver Milestone Media on whatever platform you want.”

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Hudlin is an experienced writer of graphic novels as well as the filmmaker behind 1990 comedy House Party and the producer of films including Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.

He is teaming with artist Kyle Baker for a new Static Shock comic series as part of the Milestone relaunch, which is coming in February 2021.

This is the second attempt at a revival for Milestone, which shut down in 1997 and subsequently saw some of its characters absorbed into the wider DC Comics continuity.

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Hudlin, along with co-founders Denys Cowan and Derek T. Dingle, sought to bring the label back under the DC banner in 2018, but were thwarted by a lawsuit by co-founder Dwayne McDuffie’s widow — Charlotte Fullerton.

That lawsuit was settled last year, paving the way for DC to fire the starting pistol on the return of Milestone.

It looks as if that return is heading all the way to the big screen, whether the final project turns out to be animated or live-action.