DC's 'Black Adam': Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson to bring the iconic anti-hero to life on the big screen
After the immense success of ‘Shazam!’, DC is now focusing on bringing out the family-friendly superhero movie’s darker spin-off ‘Black Adam’. With Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson cast in the lead role, the film is bound to be a good one. Unfortunately, the movie won't be out till at least 2021 but that doesn't make it any less exciting.
In the comics, Black Adam is arguably Billy Batson’s biggest rival. His powers are pretty much the same and the supervillain brings centuries of experience to the table which makes him a truly formidable opponent. Adam was initially expected to appear as the villain in the ‘Shazam!’ movie but was dropped in favor of Doctor Sivana.
The ‘Black Adam’ movie is expected to take us back to Ancient Egypt with the character’s origin story. Adam started life as a prince of Egypt and a hero of his people before his corruption and eventual downfall. The Rock has dabbled in a similar role before with 2002’s ‘The Scorpion King’ so he has experience in the setting, though it can be hoped that ‘Black Adam’ will be a much better movie. Unlike 'Shazam!', the 'Black Adam' movie is expected to have a darker tone, which would be perfect because it would show how the character is the direct opposite of the lovable Billy Batson. The movie will have to give a good backstory to the character and set up his conflict with his heroic rival.
Unfortunately, the film will not feature Zachary Levi’s popular version of Shazam though the actor has suggested that the two characters will go up against each other in the future. According to Cinemablend, Levi has suggested that the much-awaited battle will go down in ‘Shazam 3’.
“I can say that as far as I know, Black Adam is not going to be in the second Shazam!, because the idea is that they want to go and do a standalone Black Adam movie first,” the actor said. “And then it would kind of be, if we do a third Shazam! and a second Black Adam, kind of [parallel] like that, that’s where we would [meet].”
He also added that Black Adam is too good a character to be launched into the DC Extended Universe prematurely.
“Because he’s like the ultimate bad guy for Captain Marvel, Shazam,” Levi said. “Like [Shazam and] Black Adam, they’re doppelgängers right, the evil twin to who I am. So that’s got to be like the final battle.”
Jaume Collet-Serra (‘Jungle Cruise’) is set to direct the ‘Black Adam’ movie with Adam Sztykiel penning the script. While official plot details are scarce, it’s been rumored that the movie will include Hawkman, Atom Smasher, and Stargirl, who once served alongside Adam in the heroic Justice Society in the comics. All three characters have already appeared on television in ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ and Stargirl will soon be leading her own DC Universe series.
Despite the long way to go before ‘Black Adam’ arrives in theaters, it’s never too early to get excited about the project. We can’t wait to see what DC does with the iconic anti-hero but we are pretty sure that fans will love to watch the Rock bring the legendary character to life.
