Nobody Cares About ‘Black Adam’ More Than The Rock

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been busy promoting his passion project, the superhero movie Black Adam.

You’d be forgiven for not recognizing the name – both DC and Marvel have burned through their most iconic superheroes and are now experimenting with more obscure characters, often unknown to viewers who don’t read comic books.

Black Adam is the arch-nemesis of Shazam, a superhero who managed to launch into the public consciousness via the lighthearted comedy Shazam! Black Adam is hinted at in the Shazam! movie, but never actually appears, despite the original plan being to introduce both characters together. Recently, Johnson revealed that he was the one who pressured the studio into separating the two. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Johnson stated:

“When the first draft of the movie came to us, it was a combination of Black Adam and Shazam: Two origin stories in one movie. Now that was the goal—so it wasn’t a complete surprise. But when I read that, I just knew in my gut, ‘We can’t make this movie like this. We would be doing Black Adam an incredible disservice.’ It would’ve been fine for Shazam having two origin stories converge in one movie, but not good for Black Adam.”

“I made a phone call,” Johnson says. “I said, ‘I have to share my thoughts here. It’s very unpopular…’ because everybody thought, ‘Hey, this script is great, let’s go make this movie.’ I said, ‘I really think that you should make Shazam!, make that movie on its own in the tone that you want. And I think we should separate this as well.’”

From the trailer, it’s clear that Black Adam will have a very different tone from Shazam!, which really leaned into the silliness of the source material, frilly cape and all.

Black Adam seems to be leaning the other way, the trailer emphasizing how the titular antihero doesn’t hesitate to murder his opponents (which doesn’t really differentiate him from the Batman and Superman we’ve seen on screen, but whatever).

The two movies don’t seem incompatible, exactly (it’s perfectly conceivable that the two will meet onscreen, even if Johnson doesn’t seem keen) but it seems clear that Johnson didn’t want Black Adam to be viewed as a joke.

But is it really possible to separate Black Adam from Shazam’s silliness? After all, the two were gifted their powers from the same wizard – the fact that their origin story even includes a wizard is pretty funny!

Separating the two is a bit like separating Thor and Loki, or Spider-Man and Venom (well, Sony already did that). The point is, the two characters were written to mirror one another, as Black Adam shows what Shazam could become if he treads down the wrong path.

Johnson, however, doesn’t seem interested in squaring off against Shazam; instead, Johnson has made it clear that he wants to fight Superman, and maybe even win, promising that “the hierarchy of power in the DC universe is about to change.”

Maybe Johnson will get his wish – Superman is in a strange limbo right now, with Warner Bros. seemingly confused about what to do with the character.

“When you pull Black Adam out of the pantheon of superheroes in the DC Universe, he is blessed with these incredible superpowers from the gods that rival Superman,” Johnson said. “The difference is, well, a few things. Number one, Superman’s greatest weakness is magic, and one of Black Adam’s greatest superpowers is magic.”

It seems like Johnson wants his relatively unknown antihero to be the coolest toy in the playground; the actor isn’t known for losing fights onscreen, and he has ambitions to make Black Adam big enough to not only fight Superman, but to enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Johnson stated:

“Across the street, we have the pantheon of superheroes and supervillains of Marvel. To me, they can not only exist, but they should, in my mind, cross paths one day.”

Amusingly, Johnson’s relentless enthusiasm is in stark contrast to the muted public reaction to Black Adam – to most, it’s another generic superhero movie in a very crowded landscape. What does the film have to offer, other than The Rock in a spandex costume?

Viewers have sat through years of Marvel’s superhero team-ups and take-downs, the gritty satire of The Boys and Invincible, and the edgy experiments like Joker, Suicide Squad and Peacemaker. We’re spoilt for choice, especially for antiheroes; hence, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of anticipation for Black Adam.

On Twitter, Johnson’s determination to push the character into the spotlight hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Time will tell if separating Black Adam from Shazam was the right move – without his arch-nemesis, Shazam is due to fight super-obscure villains the “Daughters of Atlas” in the upcoming sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which has now been pushed to March 17, 2023.

It’s no secret that the DC cinematic universe is currently in disarray, in tatters after an unprecedented cost-cutting spree, which resulted in the complete cancellation of the Batgirl movie.

The box office success, or failure, of Black Adam will likely influence the direction of the entire DC universe going forward; either way, the “hierarchy of power” really is about to change.