Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam will finally be making it into theatres on October 21, 2022 after Covid-related delays and being shuffled around the release schedule several times. But while you may think that the movie has been gestating for a couple of years, it’s actually been a lot longer than that. In fact Dwayne Johnson was talking about the character in interviews as far back as fifteen years ago.
Amusingly, at a junket for Southland Tales, of all things, Johnson provided an update on the Shazam movie which was in development at the time. Shazam! wouldn’t end up being released until 2019, with Zachary Levi in the lead role.
In the 2007 interview with SlashFilm, Johnson said; “I just met with Pete Segal last night. It was a great meeting on Shazam. We’re just waiting for John August to hand in another draft, which will probably be handed in months from now because of the [writers] strike. And not Shazam but Black Adam, that’s now very clear. He’s a character that I can’t wait to play.” Poor Dwayne, he’s been in a state of readiness for a decade and a half.
Johnson continued; “When they first approached me about playing Captain Marvel, they said there is also this interesting character too called Black Adam. This was about a year ago on the set of Get Smart. I said ‘Oh, Okay, Great’. We went down to Comic Con to show the trailer for Get Smart. And there I was talking to all the fans and they were like ‘You should really look into Black Adam.’ So I said to some writer or journalist that I think it’s up to the fans, they should just let me know. And they just let me know in spades – it’s Black Adam! And that dictated to the studio, to the director…”
So, Johnson’s attachment to the character predates the entire MCU and DCEU – the modern age of superhero movies. It’s an awfully long time to wait, but that will finally be over for Johnson in a few months.
In the meantime, check out our guide to the best Batman villains.