During a surprise, DC Fandome panel about Milestone Media, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Reginald Hudlin announced there is a Static Shock movie in the works.
Static Shock follows a teenage boy, Virgil Hawkins, in the city of Dakota with electricity-based powers, who with the help of his inventive friend, fights crime as a superhero. After walking into an area where chemical containers explode, Hawkins is mutated, gaining powers to create, generate, absorb, and control electricity and magnetism.
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The comic book was created by Milestone Media, a publishing house created in 1993 by Dwayne McDuffie, Dneys Cowan, and a few other notable Black comics. Their objective was to address the underrepresentation of racial minorities in superhero comics. The publishing house created superheroes liek Icon, Rocket, and Static Shock, with the latter being the most notable.
The comic was created in the 90s and adapted into Kids’ WB animated series that aired for over fifty episodes, from 2000 to 2004. The series received multiple Daytime Emmy award nominations and is still highly regarded by fans for being one of the few superhero series starring a Black character.
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Hudlin is involved with expanding the creative franchise that is Milestone Media. Milestone’s return to publishing will be led by an all-new Static Shock digital comic series scheduled for February 2021.
“We’re talking with other divisions at Warner Bros, even those in animated about doing (Milestone Media) 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,” said Hudlin.
Future offerings will include a Static Shock original graphic novel written by Hudlin with art by Kyle Baker, plus the return of Milestone heroes Icon & Rocket, also written by Hudlin with art by Cowan and more to be announced.
Phil LaMarr who voiced Static Shock on the animated series, and was also on the panel said:
Virgil is what I always wanted as a comic book kid growing up: Black Spider-Man. A good (comic-book) story can make you live it, feel it, and when it does, it resonates on a whole other level. It was so real world, and a textured story removed from the 1930s ‘We are exhibiting the world’. I felt like it was drawn by somebody who lived in a building I could go into. It touched on archetypes as a comic fan that I loved, but also touched on my life as a Black man in the real world.”
The Static Shock movie is a part of DC’s revitalizing the imprint which is devoted to African American voices. As of now, casting and more information have yet to be revealed.