In the wake of the release of the DCEU feature Zack Snyder’s Justice League this week, Deadline reports that Warner Bros. is hard at work developing a solo film featuring Golden Age DC superhero Hourman. The news arrives as the studio continues to move towards DC heroes that don’t contain Justice League members, including the recently-announced Blue Beetle and Zatanna projects.
Hourman is being written by Gavin James and Neil Widener, both of whom are also writing the sequels Now You See Me 3 and San Andreas 2. WB is producing the film alongside Chernin Entertainment, marking the production company’s first time tackling a DC project. It remains unclear if Hourman will be joining the DC Extended Universe, or be its own solo project, like the Oscar-winning Joker.
In the comics, Rex Tyler (a.k.a. Hourman) made his debut in Adventure Comics #48 in 1940, before becoming a founding member of the Justice Society of America. A chemist researching vitamins and hormone supplements, he created the drug Miraclo, which granted him superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and durability — but only for one hour. The oddly specific restriction has a purpose, as Rex knew how addictive the power could become.
Despite how surprising the announcement might be to some, the studio has actually been keen on producing a project featuring the hero for quite some time. Back in 2013, CW was looking to adapt Hourman to the small screen, but it never came to fruition. Since then, Rex Tyler showed up a few years ago in Legends of Tomorrow, but more recently appeared in the CW series Stargirl played by Lou Ferrigno Jr., where his son Rick (Cameron Gellman) takes up the Hourman mantle as a member of a contemporary JSA. Dwayne Johnson’s long-awaited Black Adam film will bring the superhero team to the big screen, including iconic heroes Hawkman and Doctor Fate, however, it’s unclear if Hourman appears as a member.
Warner Bros. currently has plenty of superhero projects in the works, so it’s unclear how long it might be before we see Hourman, or even find out who will be playing the character in this new project. Until then, you can get your Justice Society of America fix on the CW’s Stargirl and the upcoming Black Adam.