Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been attached to play Black Adam for a long time, and following the success of Shazam! earlier this year, the Black Adam movie finally started accelerating down the developmental pipeline. So when can we expect to see Johnson finally bring this DC Comics character to life? We finally know the answer: December 22, 2021.
This information comes straight from Dwayne Johnson himself, who also debuted the first poster for the Black Adam movie, which you can check out below.
With Black Adam arriving in a little over two years time, obviously it’ll be a while until we get an official picture of Dwayne Johnson in the Black Adam costume. That said, as the Hollywood superstar shared on Instagram, DC Comics icon Jim Lee and superhero fan-art extraordinaire BossLogic collaborated to create this poster. And now, rather than just keep guessing when Black Adam will hit the big screen, there’s finally a date set in place.
Black Adam is the third DC Comics movie that’s set for release in 2021. It’s being preceded by The Batman on June 25 and The Suicide Squad on August 6. As far as opening weekend competition goes, Black Adam opens one day after Hotel Transylvania 4, and the same day as Sherlock Holmes 3, Wicked and a yet-to-be-revealed live-action Disney movie. Black Adam also arrives just four days after Avatar 2 comes out.
The original plan was for Black Adam to make his cinematic debut in the first Shazam! movie, where he and the World’s Mightiest Mortal would come to blows. However, it was later decided that Black Adam was an important enough character to warrant starring in his own movie first, and it remains to be seen when he and Shazam will cross paths in a film setting, though Zachary Levi suspects it won’t happen until Shazam! 3.
So far Dwayne Johnson is the only actor attached to Black Adam, though now that the movie has a release date, one would imagine that more casting news isn’t too far off. No plot details have been revealed yet either, though given the tease for Black Adam in Shazam! (though he wasn’t named), it’s a good bet that we’ll delve into his origins in ancient Egypt or Kahndaq. It’s also been rumored that Hawkman, Stargirl and Atom Smasher, all of whom Black Adam interacted with during Geoff Johns’ run on the JSA comic book, will show up.
Behind-the-scenes, Jaume Collet-Serra, who has already worked with Dwayne Johnson on Jungle Cruise, is directing Black Adam, and Undateable’s Adam Sztykiel is writing the script. Although Black Adam was initially portrayed in the comics as a straightforward super villain, he’s evolved into an anti-hero in the modern era, and that’s how Dwayne Johnson will portray him.
Black Adam is scheduled to begin filming next July, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all the latest updates on how it’s coming along. Don’t forget to browse through our DC movies guide to learn what other movies this franchise has in the works.
