Great Caesar's Ghost! Don't call him Chief!
Deadline is reporting that James Gunn's upcoming 2025 film Superman, formerly known as Superman: Legacy, has cast Wendell Pierce as Daily Planet editor-in-chief Perry White, best known to DC Comics fans as Clark Kent's boss.
Pierce joins David Corenswet as Superman/Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific/Michael Holt, Terence Rosemore as Otis, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho/Rex Mason, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern/Guy Gardner, María Gabriela de Faría as The Engineer/Angela Spica, Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord, and Milly Alcock as Supergirl/Kara Zor-El.
Pierce, 60, is probably best known as Detective William "Bunk" Moreland on the HBO drama The Wire and has appeared in the films Malcolm X, Hackers, Waiting to Exhale, Ray, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, and Selma. His other TV appearances include episodes of Law & Order, Treme, Suits, Ray Donovan, Archer, Jack Ryan, and Elsbeth.
The earliest Superman comics depict Clark Kent and Lois Lane working for the newspaper the Daily Star, under an editor named George Taylor. However, after Perry White's introduction in The Adventures of Superman radio series, the character was incorporated into the comic books, appearing as the editor of a newly renamed the Daily Planet. No in-story explanation for this change was given at the time, and neither George Taylor nor the Daily Star were mentioned again for many years.
Prior to the sweeping continuity changes detailed in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Perry White was depicted as having been a freelance reporter for various newspapers, including a Chicago newspaper and Gotham City's Gotham Gazette. White eventually went to work at the Daily Planet as a reporter, and earned his first Pulitzer Prize by being the first to write about Superboy's extraterrestrial origins, thanks to an exclusive interview with the Boy of Steel. Finally, during Clark Kent's junior year of college, Perry was promoted to editor-in-chief of the newspaper, after the retirement of the paper's previous editor, George Taylor.
After Crisis, Perry White was recreated by John Byrne as being born in Metropolis' Suicide Slum area, growing up with his father missing in action in an overseas war. White went to school with Lex Luthor while they were children (Luthor was also born in Suicide Slum) and became a copy boy at the Daily Planet, beginning a lifetime career that took him up the newspaper's ladder.
After Luthor became a successful businessman, he began diversifying his holdings of his newly-founded LexCorp company, which included buying the Daily Planet. Turning down an offer from Luthor to become part of Luthor's new television station WLEX, White found an investor who saved the Daily Planet, on the condition that Perry was promoted from reporter to managing editor. The entire episode, including being forced out of his active reporting career, left White bitter and angry with Luthor.
White married Alice Spencer and had a son, Jerry White. Much later, after Jerry was fully grown, Perry learned that Luthor was Jerry's biological father. Luthor seduced and impregnated Alice while Perry was overseas reporting on a war and thought to have been killed.
In recent Superman comics, Lex Luthor used Manchester Black to erase all public knowledge of Superman's secret identity. Perry became the first to demonstrate what will happen if anyone is reminded of this secret, with Black's telepathic command nearly causing Perry to have a seizure. His brain can no longer accept the idea that Superman and Clark Kent are the same person.
Pierce will be the fifth actor to portray Perry White on film, after Pierre Watkin in the Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman movie serials, Jackie Cooper in the four Superman films starring Christopher Reeve, Frank Langella in Superman Returns, and Laurence Fishburne in the films Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Superman (2025) is expected to arrive in theaters on July 11, 2025.
No comments:
Post a Comment