At long last, after years of development, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will finally be suiting up as Black Adam. Johnson has been attached to the role for years and, after lots of shifting around in the development process, it’s been decided that the wrestler-turned-actor will star as the DC villain in a solo movie, which will begin filming in summer 2020.
The news was revealed by The Rock personally on Twitter recently. Responding to a fan who had sculpted him as the character, Johnson revealed that filming on the long-awaited film is finally getting underway in the relatively near future.
“Very cool man, thank you. Amazing detail. This project has been with me for over 10 yrs. Production begins this July. Appreciate the support,” Johnson said. Originally, in the earlier years of Johnson’s acting career, before he became one of the biggest stars on the planet, the idea was to have him star as Black Adam in Shazam! That movie, released earlier this year, sees Zachary Levi as the titular hero. However, Johnson was nowhere to be found.
Given Johnson’s massive stardom, he and the brass at DC Films decided it would be best to first make a Black Adam solo movie, then have the two characters square off down the line. It was revealed earlier this year that Jaume Collet-Serra has been tapped to direct the film. Collett-Serra recently worked with Johnson on Disney’s The Jungle Cruise, which is set to hit theaters next year. Apparently, that went quite well, as the two decided to collaborate again on what will presumably be a massive blockbuster undertaking.
Black Adam dates back to 1945 in the pages of Fawcett Comics, before being brought into the DC Comics fold in 1973. Generally, he’s portrayed as a villain and the arch-nemesis of Shazam. However, Johnson has stated several times in the past that they’re going to portray him more as an anti-hero.
“Black Adam, how he starts, he starts off as a villain. Then, he becomes an anti-hero. And then he might become a hero or we might not,” Johnson said in a previous interview with ComicBook.com. Perhaps Johnson has some sort of compunction about playing a straight-up villain in a major franchise, given his stardom? In any event, we should expect a little bit of diversion from the source material.
We also know that Shazam 2 won’t feature Black Adam, as they’re saving that brawl for some time down the line, assuming things go well enough to get us there.
“I can say that as far as I know, Black Adam is not going to be in the second Shazam!” Levi said at Germany’s CCXP Cologne convention. “Because the idea is that they want to go and do a standalone Black Adam movie first, And then it would kind of be, if we do a third Shazam! and a second Black Adam, kind of like that, that’s where we would meet.”
Black Adam does not yet have a release date.
So what do you think? Are you excited about a Black Adam movie? Or would it be better for him to appear as a villain in Shazam 2 first? Sound off in the comments!
