Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is keeping busy befriending gorillas and doing a press tour for Baywatch, and it was during this tour on Monday that he fielded multiple questions about his upcoming role in the DC Extended Universe. The Rock is set to play the villain (or anti-hero, as he sees it) Black Adam in what was going to be a Shazam movie but is now going to be a Black Adam movie followed by a Shazam movie. Rock was first offered the role of Shazam but requested to play the villain instead, and his interest in Black Adam definitely shows in the interview clips below.
In this first clip, Rock tells We Got This Covered who he’d like to see play Shazam: “The Lone Ranger” as in Armie Hammer. But Rock added Hammer is just one of the potential actors up for the role:
“I’m not even going to tell you his name, I’m just going to say Lone Ranger… I just remember meeting him and walking away going, ‘Man, that guy would look great, I bet, as Shazam.’ And by the way, he’s one of a handful.”
I hope Hammer doesn’t let them down; please Hammer, don’t hurt ’em. (I’m sorry.)
In an interview with Fandango, The Rock talked about how they “have a really cool surprise for Black Adam that I can’t reveal, in terms of where we will see Black Adam being introduced,” and he also said a fight between his Black Adam and Henry Cavill’s Superman is “in the cards.”
This isn’t the first time he’s teased a fight with Superman, although the president of New Line Cinema said two years ago that Black Adam and Shazam would be separate from Justice League. From the sound of that Fandango clip, Black Adam is part of the same universe now. After all, if you can add The Rock to your cinematic universe, IT DOESN’T MATTER what you originally planned.
(Via Fandango, The Wrap, We Got This Covered, and Screen Rant)