Recently, as part of a big breakdown of the entire Ray Fisher/Warner Bros. situation, THR reported that one of the men involved in the “Justice League” situation, former DC Films boss Geoff Johns, was involved in a problematic casting decision while serving as a producer on the short-lived Syfy series, “Krypton.” And now, the actor who was denied a role because of the decision, Regé-Jean Page, is speaking up about what was revealed.
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According to THR, while overseeing “Krypton,” Geoff Johns turned down an idea from the series’ creators to cast a Black person as the grandfather to Kal-El, aka Clark Kent, aka Superman. For those not aware, “Krypton” is a series that ran several years ago on Syfy and told the story of what happened on Superman’s home planet decades before it would be destroyed. The report claimed Johns turned down the idea of actor Regé-Jean Page portraying Kal-El’s grandfather because he didn’t want Superman to have a Black person as a grandparent. Johns also reportedly turned down the idea of making “Krypton” character Adam Strange gay or bisexual.
As you might expect, learning that you were denied a role based on your race is enough to make Page respond on social media. And perhaps adding even more insult to the injury, so to speak, is the fact that Page has gone on to become a huge star thanks to his breakout role in the Netflix series, “Bridgerton,” so there are even more eyes on the comments he posted on social media.
The actor tweeted, “Hearing about these conversations hurts no less now than it did back then. The clarifications almost hurt more tbh. Still just doing my thing. Still we do the work. We still fly.”
Responding to the report of Johns not wanting a Black person to play Kal-El’s grandfather, the producer’s representative said to THR, “Geoff celebrates and supports LGTBQ characters, including Batwoman, who in 2006 was re-introduced as LGBTQ in a comic-book series co-written by Johns.” The spokesperson also included the defense that the “Krypton” decision was made because Johns believed fans would want Superman’s ancestors to resemble Henry Cavill, who appears as Clark Kent in “Man of Steel,” “Batman v. Superman,” and “Justice League.”
Of course, “Krypton” would eventually go on to be canceled by Syfy and the series really didn’t make much of an impact on the overall superhero film and TV landscape. However, when you look at Johns’ alleged actions on that series, combined with what Ray Fisher accuses him of in the rest of the THR report, and there seems to be a bit of a problematic pattern when it comes to Geoff Johns’ decision-making while working at DC Films.