Last October, Warner Bros. and DC Comics announced that one of the first projects from their new digital production team would be a live-action adaptation of the Static Shock comic book series from writer-producer Reginald Hudlin. Now, it seems that we have a potential candidate to play the teenaged master of electromagnetism: Jaden Smith.
In an interview with Flicks and the City, The Walking Dead actor Tyler James Williams accidentally spilled some pretty major beans about the project, saying that “it’s great to see Static Shock happening with Jaden [Smith].” If this is true, then it’s becoming increasingly clear that the Smith household is a DC Comics one as his father, Will Smith, is currently playing Deadshot in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad. That being said, you may want to go ahead and get a wheelbarrow because you’re going to want to take this with a massive grain of salt.
For the uninitiated, Static Shock is based on a long-running DC Comics property. Created by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Derek Dingle, and Michael Davis in 1993, Static (as it was then called) told the story of Virgil Ovid Hawkins, an African-American teenager who gains the ability to generate and control electromagnetic fields after being exposed to an experimental mutagen. Adopting the secret identity of Static, Virgil begins fighting crime in his community and doing battle with other newly superpowered no-good-niks who were exposed to the same mutagen. Much like Spider-Man, Virgil must find that delicate balance between navigating the hormonally-charged hellscape that is high school life and patrolling the streets at night to keep them safe.
It’s important to note that nothing is set in stone at this point, and Williams’ remarks could be entirely off base. More importantly though, can we please just get the old Static Shock animated series on Netflix already?
Would you like to see Jaden Smith play Static Shock? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments below.
