Dwayne Johnson to play Black Adam in DC’s Shazam Movie

The slate of movie adaptations for DC Comics continues to grow in the studio’s effort to combat the runaway successes of Marvel’s movie machine. Dwayne Johnson confirmed via Twitter today that he will be playing Black Adam in an upcoming feature centered on the hero Shazam.

Johnson’s been rumored, and has been teasing involvement himself, as part of one of DC’s upcoming features, but it wasn’t known until today who he’d play. Black Adam is traditionally the key antagonist to Shazam, also known as Captain Marvel. (You can read more about how all of that came to pass, as well as some comments that seem pretty silly about now, here). If you’re interested in the nuances of the character’s power set and backstory, there’s a great DC wiki page to be found here, but the short version is that he’s a lot like Superman – flight, super-speed, super-strength, etc., with a few individual quirks substituted in for the heat vision. There’s also a significant influence from Egyptian mythology in a manner similar to Thor’s Norse origins within the Marvel Comics universe. Another part of Johnson’s tweet worth noting is the hashtagh “TheAntiHero.” Although Black Adam is typically played as the antagonist in Shazam stories, he’s also been a hero of sorts, particularly in stories dealing with the character’s ancient Egyptian origins. Whether the hashtag points to a potential storyline or merely the angle the filmmakers will be taking on the character remains to be seen.

We do know at least one part of that behind-the-camera team, though. As reported by Variety, Darren Lemke has been brought in to pen the script for the Shazam pic. As with any movie, we hope for the best, but Lemke’s addition doesn’t necessarily inspire a lot of confidence. Past credits include Shrek Forever After, Jack the Giant Slayer, and Turbo (three films which, collectively, average a point under “Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes.)

The other big question left standing for the moment is where, if at all, a Shazam movie would fit into the greater film continuity that DC seems intent on building. If the movie did lean heavily into the mythological side of its history, it could do for DC something akin to what Guardians of the Galaxy has achieved for Marvel – showcase a fresher, more foreign side of the universe to counterbalance the more traditional stories around Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and others.