Iron Man 3 Director Names the One Superhero Movie He’s Still Determined to Make
A decade after Iron Man 3, director Shane Black is still chasing his dream gig: bringing pulp legend Doc Savage to the big screen. The Kiss Kiss Bang Bang filmmaker says the Man of Bronze remains the one superhero he most wants to tackle.
Shane Black has a bucket-list superhero movie, and no, it isn’t another Marvel gig. He still wants to make a big, pulpy, old-school Doc Savage adventure — the one that keeps almost happening and then doesn’t.
Shane Black’s white whale
In a recent chat with The Hollywood Reporter, Black said he’s still itching to finally do Doc Savage, the 1930s pulp hero he’s obsessed with. He’s been circling it for over a decade — Sony closed a deal with him to make it years back, and Dwayne Johnson was attached to star for a while — but the whole thing stalled out.
"I’ve always loved Doc Savage. It’s based on 30s pulp, and he was the OG superhero. His name was Clark Savage Jr., and he was literally described as a super man. The first Doc Savage was in 1933 — before Clark Kent/Superman in 1938... I would love, at some point, to revisit that."
"The problem is that the IP is not a household name. It’s much easier to fund something at that level of expense if it has Batman or Superman attached... It has to be someone you can walk into a studio with and say, It’s going to be $150 million. Minimum. Doc Savage is an entire world of adventure, and it’s a 30s period piece. I wouldn’t want to modernize it."
Why it keeps stalling
Black’s explanation is pretty simple: Doc Savage would be an expensive, period-piece spectacle, and studios get nervous when the brand isn’t a household name. You can spend Dark Knight money on Batman; you have to talk executives into spending that on Doc Savage. That’s the hill.
So who would play Doc now?
Johnson, who once circled the role, seems to be stepping away from capes and spandex for now. Black doesn’t have a new name yet and says the actor has to be compelling enough to pry open a studio’s wallet for a 1930s-set blockbuster. Translation: think star who can justify a $150 million minimum price tag.
Quick refresher: who is Doc Savage?
He’s Clark Savage Jr., the hyper-competent pulp adventurer who predated Superman by five years and helped shape a whole generation of comics and genre storytelling. Yes, he’s also a Clark. And yes, you can see the DNA: larger-than-life hero, a team of specialists, globe-trotting quests — it’s all there. Black wants the full retro version, not a modernized update.
Where Black’s coming from
- Screenwriter days: Lethal Weapon (1987), Last Action Hero (1993), and more
- Directorial debut: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
- Then Iron Man 3 (2013)
- The Nice Guys (2016)
- The Predator (2018)
- Most recently: Play Dirty (2025)
Inside baseball note: Black really did have Doc Savage set up at Sony more than 10 years ago with Johnson attached, but it never made it to the start line. The new comments come from THR and were first flagged by Brandon Schreur at SuperHeroHype.