The Rock shall soon be seen in Fast And Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw for a dose of customary testosterone alongside Jason Statham, but in the course of that film’s arrival (on August 2), questions are arising about his long gestating DCEU role, that of Black Adam. Dwayne Johnson first revealed that he would be playing the supervillain four years ago, and it looked like the project was growing closer to finally happening as a Shazam! spinoff after the Zachary Levi-starring film’s successful box-office run. At the time, The Rock declared that he’s had Black Adam “in my DNA for over 10 years” and that shooting was expected to begin in 2020.
While on the Hobbs & Shaw red carpet, producer Hiram Garcia delivered a further (and promising) update on the situation. Jaume Collet-Serra has been hired to direct Black Adam, and Gardia raved to CinemaBlend about the director while promising exciting results for a Black Adam-centered movie:
“Jaume is a real talent. He is one of my favorite directors I’ve ever worked with. Not only is he talented, he’s an unbelievable collaborator. He’s an amazing visionary. And what we have in store with Black Adam and for the fans, I am so excited inside. Inside, I take pride as being a fan boy. I started as a fan boy before I became a producer, so I hold onto that DNA. His vision for what we want to do with Black Adam is fantastic. So, that deal’s almost closed. He’s ready to go, and I think the fans are going to be really happy.”
Likewise, The Rock recently took to Facebook to praise Collet-Serra (who worked with him on Disney’s Jungle Cruise) for “his passion, work ethic, style, vision, tone and quality” and virtually toasted with “a double tequila” after learning that they’d bring the supervillain to the big screen together. So, it’s looking like we’ll finally see Black Adam in his own movie, and the DCEU’s been striking gold lately, so perhaps we should simply trust the process.
Black Adam’s background is a tricky one to explain (you can read more about him here) in a few short sentences, but he didn’t start out on the villain side. Rather, he was once heroic and considered to be Egypt’s greatest champion until his powers were corrupted, taking him to the bad side. On that note, a Shazam! deleted scene (from the film’s July 16 Blu-Ray release) did suggest that Black Adam’s on the horizon by teasing his impending presence. The moment occurs when Shazam!/Billy Batson and his family (all newly installed as superheros in the movie’s finale) all plop down on their ancient thrones. Yet who does the seventh, unoccupied throne belong to? Billy’s older sister, Mary, thinks she’ll automatically love whoever that ends up being, but she might be wrong. Watch below, courtesy of IGN.