New Line and DC Entertainment has released that there will be a Black Adam solo movie featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Black Adam. New Line has been developing the Shazam film for over a decade.
The move comes from last week’s high level meeting with The Rock and Geoff Johns, after which The Rock took to Twitter to promise “hope, optimism & fun.” The Rock has been attached to play Black Adam since around 2008. To execs, a man of the Rock’s stature was not to be kept out of the limelight for a more prominent role so the Shazam film we’ve all been hoping for has been reconfigured to feature Black Adam as the central character.
Adam has become more of an anti-hero, mirroring recent developments in the comics written by Johns, where Adam, while still a villain, fought against enemies who sought to enslave his people.
No writer or filmmaker is attached to Black Adam. Shazam! has a script that is supposedly being worked on by Henry Gayden. One of the oldest comic characters in the DC Universe, Shazam was originally known as Captain Marvel. The stories centered on Billy Batson, a teenager who becomes Shazam when he utters the magic word “Shazam!” The name is an acronym for six gods and heroes of the ancient world as well as their attributes: the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Aries, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles and the speed of Mercury.
