It’s official: Black Adam is indeed a real movie, it does indeed star Dwayne Johnson, and thanks to the 2021 DC Fandome event, we finally have our first look at actual proof of this cinematic fact beyond concept art!
The promise of a Shazam-adjacent film starring Dwayne Johnson stretches back at least to 2007, which was the first time io9 covered his possible involvement in the project. In 2007, Johnson was a movie star, but he wasn’t the global superstar he was in 2014, when he announced he’d be playing Black Adam — or in 2021, when Black Adam actually started filming at long last. So to say Johnson has been waiting a long time to get to play the iconic DC character is absolutely not an exaggeration, and it also explains his excitement at getting to share bits and pieces of its production with the world.
Ladies & gents…
Enjoy your WORLD EXCLUSIVE first look⚡️He is ruthless.
He is unstoppable.
He is the reason the hierarchy of power in the DC UNIVERSE is about to change.He is #BLACKADAM
The Man in Black has come around…#DCFanDome@SevenBucksProd@flynnpictureco pic.twitter.com/nv4oRmaLlq
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) October 16, 2021
Filming for Black Adam kicked off back in April, so you know Johnson’s been dying to make a splash with some actual footage. Predictably, we know next to nothing about the plot, but with the Rock involved we can certainly look forward to lots of action with, inevitably, plenty of humour too; it seems likely given Johnson’s passion for the project that we won’t see a traditionally villainous take on the main character. Also, it doesn’t hurt that the rest of the cast is rather outstanding, and that the characters they’re playing are all rather intriguing: Aldis Hodge (Invisible Man) as Hawkman; Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate; Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher; Sarah Shahi as Isis; and Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone. And, yes, the movie does indeed have a release date, as previously reported: Black Adam is set to arrive July 29, 2022.