In just a few weeks, Dwayne Johnson will finally roll cameras on his DC movie, Black Adam. That statement seems almost unbelievable — because if you can believe it, the actor and the role have been inseparable for over a decade. In that time, Johnson has taken great pleasure in teasing fans about what’s to come and reiterating his unrelenting passion to play the anti-hero. But even he certainly didn’t realise just how long it would take.
Over the years, much has changed about what fans thought Johnson’s role as Black Adam would be, when the film was supposed to come out, and much more. So let’s take a stroll down memory lane, DC-style.
November 26, 2007: At least on Gizmodo, this was the first time the site wrote about Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a. The Rock, potentially playing Black Adam. At the time though, there seemed to still be a chance he’d play the hero Shazam instead. Nothing was set in stone, though. It was just talk.
September 3, 2014: Yes, 2014. That’s not a typo. That was when Johnson confirmed that he would be playing Black Adam in a DC movie.
October 15, 2014: Warner Bros. announces the future of the DC universe. Zack Snyder is making two Justice League movies. Ezra Miller is the Flash and the Rock will play Black Adam in Shazam, scheduled for release in 2019.
May 16, 2017: In an interview, Johnson teases some kind of cameo or surprise well before a Shazam or Black Adam movie. As far as we can tell, that plan changed.
January 19, 2017: Black Adam is getting his own movie. News breaks that before we see the character face-off with Shazam, as originally expected, Johnson will star in his own origin story of sorts. The two will potentially showdown after that.
February 21, 2017: On social media, Johnson gives an impassioned speech about why Black Adam, long considered a villain, isn’t necessarily just that.
April 11, 2018: Johnson says in an interview he thinks the film will start shooting in 2019.
March 23, 2019: Our review of Shazam is published. This was the movie many fans expected Black Adam to appear in, but he does not. The movie is good, though, and it’s a hit — only adding more fuel to a possible showdown in the future.
July 1, 2019: A deleted scene from Shazam seems to hint at Black Adam’s arrival.
July 7, 2019: Black Adam has its director. After what we can only assume was a good experience together on Disney’s Jungle Cruise, Johnson and his team hire Jaume Collet-Serra to direct the DC comic book film.
November 14, 2019: Black Adam has a release date! December 22, 2021. We can’t wait. (Actually, we can and we will.)
November 17, 2019: The film’s director of photography is announced, Larry Sher. The crew is starting to come together.
April 14, 2020: As the covid-19 pandemic just starts to hit Hollywood hard, Johnson guesses he might start filming in August or September 2020, still aiming at that 2021 release date. That doesn’t end up happening.
July 16, 2020: One of the biggest pieces of casting yet happens as Noah Centineo joins the film as Atom Smasher.
August 22, 2020: Arguably the biggest day in Black Adam history. During DC Fandome, Johnson reveals the film will feature the Justice Society of America. We also get to see some concept art and the official logo for the first time.
[referenced id=”1285251″ url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2020/08/black-adams-justice-society-is-revealed-at-dc-fandome/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/23/tnss83dljohp4gpabfjs-300×169.jpg” title=”Black Adam’s Justice Society Is Revealed at DC Fandome” excerpt=”While Batmen both new and old are making their way to future movies set in WB’s universe of loosely connected stories based on DC’s comics, another sort of dark, brooding figure is making his way to the big screen in the form of Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam.”]
September 25, 2020: Aldis Hodge will be playing classic DC character Hawkman!
October 6, 2020: Black Adam is moved off Warner Bros.’ release schedule due to covid-19 rescheduling. To date, it still does not have a new release date.
October 14, 2020: The cast expands with Chicago Fire’s Sarah Shahi playing an undisclosed role.
December 15, 2020: More casting as Quintessa Swindell joins the film as Maxine “Cyclone” Hunkell, the granddaughter of the original Red Tornado.
March 21, 2021: Johnson posts the first page of his script on Instagram, revealing the tone he and the DC team are going for and that filming begins in a few short weeks. After all that time, it’s finally here. Well, give or take a few more months for the thing to actually get made.
[referenced id=”1016385″ url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2017/01/the-rock-understands-shazams-black-adam-is-a-bad-guy-right/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/05/pfygsgdiuaj71jjw7fak-300×169.png” title=”The Rock Understands Shazam’s Black Adam Is A Bad Guy, Right?” excerpt=”Every once in a while, Dwayne Johnson takes a break from his eleventy-hundred different projects to remind us that, ostensibly, at some point, there will be a Shazam movie. But every time he does, the future Black Adam makes me wonder a little more if he realises he’s chosen to…”]