Dwayne Johnson has been waiting a long time to play Black Adam; basically a decade and a half, to be precise – long before the DC Extended Universe came into existence. Well, The Rock’s patience has paid off, as this year finally sees the release of the Black Adam movie. Following the teaser that dropped at last year’s DC FanDome and the quick snippets of footage shared in February, the first official Black Adam trailer has arrived, and it shows off the DC Comics anti-hero flying around and coming into conflict with the Justice Society of America.
While we've obviously seen Dwayne Johnson do some heroic things in blockbusters of the recent past, this is the first time we've seen him enter the full-on superhero realm, and it's a good look for the star. On top of looking badass in his suit, Black Adam looks like a force to be reckoned with while either facing off against cadres of gunmen or flying through the sky with jets. (The way he casually manages to knock down a fighter plane is certainly the new trailer's biggest highlight.)
And while they aren't being put quite at center stage just yet, it's exciting that we're soon going to be seeing the first blockbuster interpretation of the Justice Society of America. Although the Justice League may be DC Comics’ most famous superhero team, the Justice Society preceded them in the comics nearly 20 years, and over the last several decades, this particular team has become a nice blend of the surviving old-timers who’ve been fighting since World War II and the “newer” generation of heroes.
While the JSA has been spotlighted on TV in shows like Smallville, Legends of Tomorrow and Stargirl, Black Adam marks their theatrical debut, and this version of the team will be comprised of Aldis Hodge’s Hawkman, Noah Centineo’s Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell’s Cyclone and Pierce Brosnan’s Doctor Fate. We get glimpses of all these exciting characters in the footage – the highlights being the magical manifestations of Doctor Fate, and the showdown between Black Adam and Hawkman, who very clearly have some different philosophies when it comes to being a hero.
Black Adam will tell the origin story of the titular character – following him from being a slave thousands of years ago and getting his powers to being awoken in the modern era and dealing with a whole new world. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, with whom Dwayne Johnson worked on the blockbuster hit Jungle Cruise, the DC Extended Universe blockbuster charges into theaters on October 21, and it'll be followed in December by David F. Sandberg's Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
To learn about the full slate of blockbusters that are on the way from both the DC Extended Universe and other continuities, be sure to head over to our Upcoming DC Movies guide, which not only has information about Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam movie, but also the star's soon-to-be-released animated feature DC League of Super-Pets (with Johnson providing the voice for Krypto The Super-Dog and reuniting with frequent co-star Kevin Hart).
