Shaquille O’Neal is an entertainer at his core, which saw him make several appearances on the big screen during his time with the Lakers in Los Angeles. In 1997, the big man starred as the main character in the superhero movie Steel featuring the DC superhero of the same name. Nearly 30 years later, the comic series still holds a special place in Shaq’s heart despite the movie’s theatrical failure.
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In an interview with UNILAD, Shaq was asked to name his favorite things in different categories in a rapid-fire round. The 52-year-old revealed that his favorite book of all time is the comic series Steel, from which his movie was adapted. He said,
“They killed Superman off a long time ago, and came back with seven different characters. And one of the characters was me. His name was Steel. So, if you look up Steel comic books, it’s me.”
Shaq’s remark may give the impression that the character was based on him, but that’s not the case. He just played the role of Steel in the film.
Steel isn’t a household name when it comes to superheroes. That’s probably because the character never really resonated with the audience like some of the other characters of the DC universe.
The true identity of the superhero is John Henry Irons who is a masterful engineer. It wasn’t until the death of Superman at the hands of the villain Doomsday, that John takes it upon himself to become a hero.
He crafts a metallic suit—which possesses striking similarities to Superman’s powers—and plans to replace the beloved hero. Following Superman’s resurrection, Steel accepts a role as an ally to the esteemed defender of hope.
However, Shaq’s film didn’t touch on any of that. The movie adaptation completely ignored the source material of the lore. This left fans enraged with the direction of the film. It didn’t help that the writing was lackluster and it’s low budget was on full display.
At the time, Steel became the biggest superhero box office flop, earning only $870,068 in its opening weekend. As of today, the film holds a rating of 12% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Despite all the negative feedback and backlash the film received, Shaq’s love for the series hasn’t wavered.
Steel made history in both good and bad ways
Steel did something that was never done before in the superhero film genre. It featured the first black superhero ever on the big screen.
Jeff Pearlman revealed in his book, Three-Ring Circus, just how devastating of a loss the film experienced. As mentioned earlier, Steel didn’t receive a major budget. Regardless, the team in charge of working on the film was given $16 million to work with. Due to the lack of success from the box office, the film lost $15,129,932.
Steel paved the way for black superhero-led film adaptations such as Blade and Black Panther. However, it’s a disastrous flop that set an unfortunate precedent that led many to believe that black superhero films can’t be successful. This would be proven to be false with the extreme success of Marvel’s Black Panther, which is the sixth highest-grossing superhero film of all time.
O’Neal made history throughout his illustrious NBA career. And he did so in his movie career as well, even if his films weren’t all box office hits.
