Pictured: Something awesome we might not get to see after all.
Yesterday, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson revealed he’ll play Black Adam in Shazam!, which is being produced by New Line Cinema, a subsidiary of Warner, instead of being under the Warner shingle like other DC movies. Being produced by New Line suggests the film may not tie into the other movies, at least not right away, a suggestion supported by Entertainment Weekly’s interview with New Line president Toby Emmerich.
Emmerich tells EW, “It’s a DC comic, but it’s not a Justice League character, and it’s not a Marvel comic.”
ಠ_ಠ
Hasn’t DC Comics been going to great lengths in the New 52 to remind everyone Shazam is in the Justice League? Didn’t he replace Aquaman in DC’s animated Justice League: War? Does Emmerich just not know Shazam’s history, or does this mean Shazam! won’t tie into Justice League? The latter sounds plausible, considering Warner farmed this out to a subsidiary.
Shazam! will also reportedly have a different tone than the other super serious DC movies. Emmerich told EW, “The tone and the feeling of the movie will be different from the other range of comic book movies.” He added that the movie “will have a sense of fun and a sense of humor. But the stakes have to be real.” They’ve hired Darren Lemke, the writer of Jack the Giant Slayer and Turbo, to pen the script, so that hints at the lighter, possibly more kid-centric tone they’re setting. A kid-friendly tone would make sense for a movie where Dwayne Johnson is the villain and the hero is a 12-year-old boy who transforms into a buff grownup by yelling “Shazam”. (Man, I keep forgetting how much this comic appealed to fragile little boy egos.)
Emmerich also spoke highly of Dwayne Johnson, saying, “Black Adam is a complex character. 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.”
Emmerich wouldn’t, however, reveal if we can expect to see Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel, Jr., or any of the other characters. If this doesn’t tie into other DC Comics movies, we don’t see how they could build that world without including those characters, and maybe we’ll even get to see some of the more strange characters like Mr. Mind. At least that’s something. I kinda wanted to see Shazam punch Superman, but I guess I’ll have to deal with it…
Yeah, I still want to see Shazam punch Superman.
Via Entertainment Weekly, Screenrant, and Badass Digest
