Steel creators were not consulted on the 1997 Shaquille O’Neal movie

Steel, the 1997 flop of a blockbuster starring Shaquille O’Neal based on the DC comic, had no involvement from the character’s creators.

When people think of 1997 and the, mostly failed, superhero movies that year, their minds often turn to Batman & Robin for an example of a flop and bad cinema from DC. But there was a bigger critical and financial failure that summer derived from DC’s other hot IP, the Superman family of characters.

Steel, released August 15, 1997, within weeks of Spawn, and starring Shaquille O’Neal, grossed $1.7 million on a $16 million budget. Despite that and a staggering critics’ score of 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s remembered by far fewer audiences than Batman & Robin. Those moviegoing masses who forgot are arguably better off.

Loosely adapting the comic of the same name and the character John Henry Irons (O’Neal), who debuted in the aftermath of The Death of Superman, Steel has practically nothing to do with the source material. A significant reason for that is the filmmakers and Warner Bros. didn’t bother to consult Irons’ creators, veteran comic book writer/editor Louise Simonson, and writer/artist Jon Bogdanove.

Bogdanove revealed this fact recently when he sat down for a chat with The Film Rescue Podcast and explained a bitter irony of the whole ordeal:

"“One of my suggestions for how to rescue this film would have been to involve in any way the two creators who invented the character. The most ironic moment of my career was drawing the comic book adaptation of the film adaptation of a character I created, after having no input into the film at all.”"

He and Simonson received screen credit for their work on the comic books, due to the intervention of DC’s President at the time, Jeanette Kahn, while Steel‘s script was written by the movie’s director Kenneth Johnson. Developer of the Incredible Hulk TV series and other shows such as Alien Nation, Johnson didn’t want to seriously adapt another superhero property. Likening Steel to a working-class Batman, he took the liberty of reimagining Irons as a protector of South Central LA.

Johnson’s film tells a tale about a John Henry Irons who builds an armored suit with an augmented hammer as his weapon to right wrongs, but that’s where the similarities end. Superman is nowhere to be found and Irons’ archenemy is a crackpot arms dealer of future weapons played by Breakfast Club actor Judd Nelson.

Bogdanove addressed how much being left out of the process that begat all that hurt him and Simonson:

"“Of course it hurt. I think Louise and I would have loved to at least been consulted and then if they went and did the same crap, at least we’d have been consulted. On the other hand, that’s sort of the nature of the business, certainly in those days, to just ignore the contribution of the creators. And by not having had anything to do with the movie, I can come on this show and speak critically about it.”"

Though the film is a lost opportunity, Shaquille O’Neal, at the height of his stardom in ’97 as a basketball player, became a budding film star after the 1994 William Friedkin sports drama Blue Chips. He was far from an unexpected choice for the lead in Steel. The year before, he starred in the fantasy comedy Kazaam as the title 5,000-year-old genie, a film that’s become a minor cult hit in its own right – as well as a victim of the confusing Mandela Effect.

Doing fairly well for himself, Shaq’s had a rap career, his own video game in Shaq Fu, and tried his hand at everything from pro wrestling to running a pizza chain. He is also a noted Superman fan known for emblazoning the Kryptonian logo on his stuff.

Steel doesn’t come with a subscription to any of the major streaming services, not even HBO Max, but is available to rent through Amazon and YouTube, if you dare.

What are your memories of Steel? Does it make your worst list? Were you a fan of the Shaquille O’Neal movie? Keep the conversation going below.