Dwayne Johnson has explained why he wanted the Black Adam character to have his own standalone film.
Speaking to Vanity Fair on Thursday, the 50-year-old superstar said he persuaded Warner Bros. to give the comic book villain a separate movie instead of mixing the stories with his arch-rival Shazam.
The wrestler-turned-actor originally signed on in 2014 to play the role alongside Zachary Levi as Shazam.
The latest: Dwayne Johnson, 50, has explained why he wanted the Black Adam character to get his own standalone movie. The actor was photographed at Comic-Con in San Diego last month
“When the first draft of the film came to us, it was a combination of Black Adam and Shazam: Two origin stories in one film,” Johnson told the publication. “Well, that was the goal – so it wasn’t a complete surprise.”
Johnson said he’s instinctively not a fan of the story structure, which is no longer preserved for the Black Adam character.
“When I read that, I just knew in my gut, ‘We can’t do this movie like this. We would be doing Black Adam an incredible disservice,” Johnson said. “It would have been fine for Shazam to have two origin stories converge in one movie, but not good for Black Adam.”
Johnson said he reached out to studio executives with his concerns, saying that combining both origin stories in the same film wasn’t best for the characters and would dilute any potential confrontation between them in the future.
The wrestler-turned-actor donned the costume at a Warner Bros. panel at Comic-Con
Johnson said he reached out to studio executives with his concerns, saying that combining both origin stories in the same film wasn’t best for the characters and would dilute any potential confrontation between them in the future
“I said, ‘I have to share my thoughts here. It’s very unpopular…” because everyone was like, “Hey, this script is great, let’s make this movie,” the action star said. “I said, ‘I really think you want Shazam!
In Shazam!, which opened in theaters in 2019, a wizard character referred to having once bestowed power on a person who used it “ruthlessly,” prompting a character resembling Johnson as Black Adam to appear.
In the Vanity Fair interview, Johnson said that the Black Adam character possesses powers comparable to Superman.
“Pulling Black Adam out of the DC Universe’s pantheon of superheroes gives him these incredible superpowers of the gods that rival Superman,” he said. “The difference is, well, a couple of things. Number one, Superman’s greatest weakness is magic, and one of Black Adam’s greatest superpowers is magic.
Johnson said the Black Adam character possessed powers comparable to Superman
Johnson noted the malicious tendencies Black Adam has that set him apart from the Man of Steel: “Superman won’t kill anyone. There is a code he lives by and honors.
“Black Adam also has a unique code of ethics. He won’t hesitate – and I like to have a bit of fun explaining this – tearing someone in half. He literally grabs someone by the neck and thigh and then rips them open, rips them apart.”
Black Adam, currently in post-production, will be directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and also stars Viola Davis, Sarah Shahi, Pierce Brosnan, Aldis Hodge and Noah Centineo.
Collet-Serra told Vanity Fair that the upcoming film “isn’t your typical superhero movie where a guy wants to be a superhero and gets the powers, and then you spend 50 minutes trying to figure out how the powers work.
“This is a movie where you introduce Black Adam right away and then throughout the movie you slowly peel the onion and reveal what happened.”
The film is slated to hit theaters on October 21.