Shaquille O’Neal never shied away from trying out new things outside of his basketball career. As a businessman, he has become a master of marketing, investments, and expanding his portfolio. As a rapper, he achieved immense success as his debut album Shaq Diesel earned the platinum rating. However, his acting career never really took off. His 1996 movie, Kazaam bombed at the box office. But that didn’t stop Shaq from taking a lead role in Steel.
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In the 1997 movie, he played a DC Comics-inspired dual role of a weapons-manufacturer and a superhero, named John Henry Irons. But this time the failure was even bigger.
Directed by Kenneth Johnson, the 1997 movie, which was made with a budget of $16 million, grossed merely $870,068 in the opening weekened. Overall, the film earned a paltry $1.7 million at the box office domestically and didn’t even touch the $1 million mark internationally, which constituted a $15.13 million loss. This was a huge setback considering that the film sought to ride the wave of movies based on DC Comics.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Batman movie series had created a huge buzz. The Tim Burton-directed 1989 Batman movie, which featured Michael Keaton in the lead role alongside a loaded cast, was made on a $48 million budget, and grossed a staggering $411.6 million at the box office. Legendary composer Quincy Jones was one of Steel’s producers. He wanted to capitalize on the market opened up by the DC-inspired Batman.
In this wake, he wanted a movie based on a black superhero in the mold of a DC character, who could mesmerize the audience through high-octane action. Jeff Pearlman in his book Three Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty revealed the insistence of Jones on casting Shaq in the movie and how it led to a huge failure.
“A black superhero, That’s what I want. A black superhero”, persisted Jones, as per the Jeff Pearlman book.
Director Kenneth Johnson had loved the idea and wondered who Jones had in mind as the lead. He had in mind iconic African-American stars like Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, and Blair Underwood. However, much to his chagrin, the producer wanted Shaq as the lead actor. Johnson stated his disagreement with the choice but Jones wouldn’t budge.
In hindsight, the director probably felt vindicated. But the humongous box office failure did take its toll. After a loss of around $15 million, O Neal’s co-star Annabeth Gish, who played the character of his love interest Susan Sparks in the movie, lauded his efforts. In his book, Pearlman revealed that she stated, “This fell a little short of a Academy Award. But he[Shaq] tried.”
24 years after the release of this movie, Shaquille O’Neal lamented not having prolific visual effects that could have made the movie much more successful.
Shaquille O’Neal wished he had the modern VFX for Steel
In 2021, during an interview with Pop Culture, the Steel protagonist revealed that he wished to do a “redo” of the movie. The Big Aristotle wanted to reap the benefits of the cutting-edge graphics design that was missing in 1997. He referred to the Jon Favreau-directed and Robert Downey Jr.-starring Iron Man as an example of high-profile animation.
“You know, when we did the movie[Steel], I would have liked to have those Iron Man effects, but nah, we did the movie in the early ’90s, and technology wasn’t as it is now, but I would love to be able to do a redo of that,” Shaq told Pop Culture
Was it the lack of visual effects or a lack in storytelling and acting that made Steel one of the biggest flops? Had Producer Quincy Jones opted for Wesley Snipes, Denzel Washington, or Blair Underwood, would the results have been the same? There’s no way to tell. But we can almost be certain that a Steel 2.0 isn’t coming out anytime soon.
