It may have taken much longer than anyone anticipated, but after years of development hell, Black Adam is nearly here. The film stars Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam, an antihero from Kahndaq who has been imprisoned for 5,000 years. Johnson recently spoke with Total Film about finally bringing Black Adam to life, but he’s already looking towards the future and the inevitable day when the anti-hero faces off against Superman, provided the first film proves to be a success.
You get one shot out of the gates to build these characters properly. We paid attention to some of the pitfalls that other films had experienced in the past, in the world of DC, and what, rightfully, got a lot of fans unhappy and pissed – and, as a fan, I was one of them.
Dwayne Johnson continued, “So, let’s make sure we respect tradition and mythology, but let’s not be handcuffed creatively. We can do anything if we keep the audience first. So to me, there’s a battle that’s going to go down one day, between Black Adam and Superman. I don’t know who that Superman is going to be, and I don’t know who’s going to play him. That’s OK. I don’t need to know right now. But I’m confident in knowing that [laughs]. And that’s based out of what fans want. We worked backwards from there.” As Johnson said, he doesn’t know who will be playing Superman when he does finally bump heads with Black Adam, but Henry Cavill has frequently said that he’s ready to put on the cape once again if Warner Bros. comes calling.
In addition to Dwayne Johnson, Black Adam is also set to introduce the Justice Society as Noah Centineo is onboard to play Atom Smasher, with Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, and Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate. Black Adam is set to hit theaters on July 29, 2022.