When you have an actor the stature of Dwayne Johnson playing a character as nuanced as Black Adam, it would do best to take advantage of it. And that’s what Warner Brothers/New Line is going to do.
The Hollywood Reporter announced that the studio will be giving Johnson’s Black Adam his own stand-alone film, one that will be developed concurrently with the forthcoming Shazam! film.
Black Adam first appeared in 1945 in Marvel Family #1 as a rather simplistic arch-enemy for Fawcett Comics Captain Marvel/Shazam. He got his powers from the same wizard that gave Marvel his powers, and the power set was the same. However, the powers corrupted him and it was up to Captain Marvel to set him straight. He then disappeared for decades.
However, in the 1990’s, the character was revived. Through the efforts of writers such as Jerry Ordway and Geoff Johns, the former one-note villain became a more nuanced anti-hero. He was a character who would protect the people of his native land, Khandaq, from any threat by any means possible. Often, this would put him at odds with the heroes of the DC Universe.
No word on a creative team or a release date for the Black Adam film. Also interesting to note that the article states that the film will be developed by Warners’ sister studio, New Line Cinema. New Line was developing Shazam! before Warners announced its DC Extended Universe. I thought that announcement moved every thing on that list over to Warners proper. Apparently not. Does this mean Black Adam and Shazam! will still be part of the of the DCEU? Almost every bit of information about the film(s) state how the film’s tone will be different from the other DCEU films. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
