Home Entertainment It's official: Dwayne Johnson is Black Adam! SHAZAM movie will be fun!

It's official: Dwayne Johnson is Black Adam! SHAZAM movie will be fun!

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Finally! After months of indecisive teasing and back and forth hemming and hawing, Dwayne Johnson has finally made up his mind on just which DC Comics character he is going to play for Warner Bros. And it’s the same character everybody thought he was going to play years ago. Yes, that’s right, “The Rock” is going to take on the Rock of Eternity as the kinda-villainous Black Adam in the upcoming Shazam movie.

The actor broke the news himself on Twitter, after having recently alluded to the fact that he was still undecided on whether or not he wanted to be the good or bad guy in the movie.

Now Black Adam is a very complex character, as I’ve mentioned before. Essentially the Negaduck to the heroic Shazam’s Darkwing (note to self: update pop culture references), the two were both chosen by the great wizard Shazam (originally that was the wizard’s name while the hero was called Captain Marvel – something DC rectified a few years ago to avoid obvious confusion with their rivals) to be his magical champion and boast the same powerset. The difference is that Adam was a fully grown man (as opposed to his counterpart being 12-year old Billy Batson in an adult body), and also had a far more flexible relationship with mass-murder. While Adam is Shazam’s nemesis, he has found himself fighting besides the good guys several times over the years, and is also the ruler of a prosperous Middle Eastern country called Kandaq where he is beloved by his people. Just don’t piss him off or he will use your spinal column as a lightning rod, and its that philosophical difference that really divided the hero from the anti-hero.

After Johnson’s social media reveal, EW scored an exclusive scoop that Shazam would actually be produced by Warner Bros subsidiary New Line Cinema, and that they already have a screenwriter in Darren Lemke (Jack the Giant Slayer, Turbo) lined up for the job. While I can’t say I was wholly blown away by either of Lemke’s previous works, both certainly had their fair share of entertainment and a great sense of fun. And despite the recent rumours about how “no jokes” would be allowed by Warner Bros in their superhero flicks, New Line President Toby Emmerich revealed that Shazam – a traditionally very campy and cheesy character/comic – would be the fun exception.

“It feels to me like Shazam will have a tone unto itself. It’s a DC comic, but it’s not a Justice League character, and it’s not a Marvel comic. The tone and the feeling of the movie will be different from the other range of comic book movies”

“[It] will have a sense of fun and a sense of humor. But the stakes have to be real.”

Emmerich also went on to speak about just how Johnson, who has been a passionate fan of the Shazam comic for years, was chosen for the role of what is essentially the bad guy.

“The villain in superhero movies is often, I think, what makes the movie. And I thought Dwayne’s take on the character, and the way that he saw Black Adam, was really compelling and fun.”

There’s that “fun” word again. Hmmmm…

And now that that whole years-long shebang is finally over, there’s only question that remains: Where are they going to find a kinda goofy white boy who can act and match up to Johnson physically to play Shazam?

 

Last Updated: September 4, 2014

One Comment

  1. I am the terror that flies in the night… I am the ingrown toenail you can’t get rid of… I am……….

    Thanks for THAT trip down memory lane!

    Reply

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