Back in October, we reported that Jaden Smith was rumored to be attached to a live action digital series produced by Reginald Hudlin and based on Milestone Media’s most famous super hero Static. This would make Jaden the third member of the Hollywood heavy weight Smith family to portray a comic book related character in another medium. Mother Jada portrays mafioso Fish Mooney an original character on the FOX tv series ‘Gotham,’ based on the pre-Batman title city. And father Will is currently filming the movie ‘Suicide Squad’ in which he plays the DC Comics assassin Deadshot.
‘The Walking Dead’ actor Tyler James Williams gave a comic-based interview recently, which mainly centered around the possibility of him playing Miles Morales, the half-black, half-Hispanic Spider-Man from the now defunct Marvel Ultimate brand. (The character lives on as part of the regular Marvel Universe.) But he did let slip that, to his knowledge, Jaden Smith is indeed playing Static.
He stated that he couldn’t get into specifics, because things were still “up in the air” but did admit “there aren’t a lot of young, black superheroes.” After someone mentions ‘Static Shock,’ he reveals “But yeah no, it’s great to see Static Shock is happening with Jaden.”
Static was the breakout character from Milestone Media, an African American-owned and -oriented comic book line that launched in 1993. Static/Virgil Hawkins is a teenage boy who gains electrical powers and was created by Dwayne McDuffie, Robert L. Washington III, and John Paul Leon. ‘Static’ was essentially Milestone’s update of the Spider-Man mythos, with a geeky teen awkwardly adjusting to life with super abilities. Milestone was distributed in association with DC Comics and Static was even adapted to a Saturday morning animated series entitled ‘Static Shock’, by DC parent company Warner Brothers.
The Milestone line, unfortunately didn’t last long, folding in 1996. The characters sat dormant for years, until DC tried integrating them into the DC Universe proper in 2008, at which point Static joined the Teen Titans. (He was also included on the ‘Teen Titans’-esque cartoon ‘Young Justice’.)
Static was still active until recently, starring in his own book, entitled ‘Static Shock’ as part of the first wave of New 52 comics, which included references to other Milestone characters, so it appeared that DC had planned to integrate them further, but sales on ‘Static Shock’ were low and the book was cancelled.
Recently, Milestone founders Hudlin, Denys Cowan, and Derek Dingle announced that Milestone would return as its own company, unaffiliated with DC.
You can watch Williams’ entire interview below. (His comments about Jaden appear at about 1:05 ):
Would you like to see Tyler James Williams as Spider-Man? What about Jaden Smith as Static? Comment below!
Source: Cinema Blend
