Though we've heard conflicting reports about Warner Bros.' plans for Shazam and Black Adam over the years, Dwayne Johnson has now confirmed that his character was originally supposed to debut as the villain in the movie that would eventually become David F. Sandberg's Shazam!... until he interjected!
While speaking to Vanity Fair, Johnson revealed that after reading the first draft of the script spotlighting both DC Comics characters, he fought for Black Adam to be removed from the project altogether because he felt combining their origin stories would do "a disservice" to The Man in Black.
“When the first draft of the movie came to us, it was a combination of Black Adam and Shazam: Two origin stories in one movie,” said the former WWE Champion. “Now that was the goal — so it wasn’t a complete surprise. But when I read that, I just knew in my gut, ‘We can’t make this movie like this. We would be doing Black Adam an incredible disservice.’ It would’ve been fine for Shazam having two origin stories converge in one movie, but not good for Black Adam.”
Johnson, who clearly has a bit of pull with the studio, voiced his concerns, and the rest is history.
“I said, ‘I have to share my thoughts here. It’s very unpopular’ because everybody thought, ‘Hey, this script is great, let’s go make this movie.’ I said, ‘I really think that you should make ‘Shazam!,’ make that movie on its own in the tone that you want. And I think we should separate this as well.'”
The Black Adam star would later elaborate with the following Tweet.
What do you guys make of Johnson's comments? Do you agree that Black Adam was deserving of his own movie before meeting up with Shazam? Be sure to let us know in the usual place.
"From New Line Cinema, Dwayne Johnson stars in the action adventure Black Adam. The first-ever feature film to explore the story of the DC Super Hero comes to the big screen under the direction of Jaume Collet-Serra (“Jungle Cruise”). Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the ancient gods— and imprisoned just as quickly—Black Adam (Johnson) is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world."
Johnson stars alongside Aldis Hodge (City on a Hill, One Night in Miami) as Hawkman, Noah Centineo (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before) as Atom Smasher, Sarah Shahi (Sex/Life, Rush Hour 3) as Adrianna, Marwan Kenzari (Murder on the Orient Express, The Mummy) as Ishmael, Quintessa Swindell (Voyagers, Trinkets) as Cyclone, Bodhi Sabongui (A Million Little Things) as Amon, and Pierce Brosnan (the Mamma Mia! and James Bond franchises) as Dr. Fate.
Black Adam will be released nationwide on 21st October 2022 by Warner Bros. Pictures.