Black Adam first teaser brings The Rock into the DC Universe

DC has revealed a first look at the long-awaited Black Adam, starring Dwayne Johnson, at its FanDome 2021 event. It’s a rather Tomb Raider-y preview of the movie, and shows Johnson’s character – who’s closely connected with Shazam in DC’s comics – being unleashed for the first time.

Check out a first look at the scene below, as well as some behind-the-scenes insight from Pierce Brosnan (who plays Doctor Fate in the film) among other members of the cast:

The Shallows director Jaume Collet-Serra is behind Black Adam. Filming finished back in July, with post-production now ongoing. Aldis Hodge (Hawkman) and Noah Centineo (Atom Smasher) are among the supporting cast, along with Sarah Shahi, last seen in Netflix’s popular series Sex/Life.

“As you guys know, this character, this film, this universe, has been a gigantic passion project of mine for a very long time,” Johnson says, explaining he’s worked extremely hard on the movie in his passion to get it right. “It’s the kind of project that I know comes along once in a lifetime.” He then revealed that the film has started post-production – finally, the project is close to seeing the light of day.

Black Adam is expected to release on July 29, 2022. 

Villain turned hero?

Black Adam is a long-term project for Johnson, who’s been associated with the film since at least 2014 – back when we were deep in the Zack Snyder generation of DC movies.

In some ways, Black Adam is an odd choice for a big-budget blockbuster, and not the most familiar character to non-comics fans. In the 2000s, however, the character rose to greater prominence, with memorable appearances in Geoff Johns’ JSA books and key DC events – he’s been depicted as a more complex villain than some of the DC’s other bad guys, which might be what attracted Johnson to the role.

Either way, the actor’s star power is bound to draw a lot of viewers to the new movie who have never heard of the character.