There are superheroes that tower grandly in the popular imagination. And then there are guys like Hawkman. If Hawkman’s going to get a movie, the fans are going to have to do it themselves. Rhett and Link have a look at what that might entail.
Essentially, a lot of trying to avoid special effects. Here’s the trailer:
And no, Rhett and Link don’t think Hawkman’s lame: They actually make a fairly compelling argument that a Hawkman movie, properly handled, could be great. The character has had enough reboots and odd ideas flung at the wall over the course of his nearly seventy-five year history that there’s plenty of material to draw from, and as a result, pretty much any fad or idea a screenwriter wants to hang his hat on would work with the character.
Also, he’s Hawkman; there’s no great defining Hawkman story that everybody new to comics has to read. Hollywood can do anything they want to Hawkman and it probably won’t be as undignified as a few things DC has actually done to the poor guy. They tried to make him an angel at one point. Stan Lee forcibly evolved him from Robin. Really, at this point, they could fire the serial numbers off Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law, turn it into a live-action movie starring Hawkman, and it’d still be better than some runs of his book.
That said, Hollywood would have to get over its own worst superhero movie impulses to make this work. It can’t be an origin story. They can’t have a second-stringer villain leading into the villain we actually want to see in the inevitable sequel, because Hawkman’s villains are all second-stringers. And it can’t be grimdark serious, because it’s a guy who flies because he shoved rare earth minerals down his pants and maybe possibly is a bird alien.
So, Rhett and Link might be on their own for this one. But, hey, at least, unlike most of Hollywood, they care about the material.