It’s weird to think that Dwayne Johnson’s history with Black Adam predates Robert Downey Jr.’s with Iron Man, even though we’ve never seen him in character. The star formally known as The Rock was first attached as Shazam’s nemesis back in 2007 and was reaffirmed to be playing the part in the DCEU as well in 2014. Shazam! might be coming next month, but Johnson won’t show up as Adam. Instead, we’re told he’ll appear in the sequel. Specifically, the second sequel.
According to a source close to We Got This Covered, fans shouldn’t expect to see the ruler of Kahndaq in Shazam! 2 as Warner Bros. is keen for Johnson to first star as the character in the Black Adam solo movie, which is also in development. The plan appears to be for this to release after the first Shazam! follow-up, meaning Zachary Levi’s hero can finally face his evil counterpart in Shazam! 3.
This news tells us a few things. First of all, WB must be very confident in the upcoming film from director David F. Sandberg if they’ve already mapped out a whole trilogy of adventures for Billy Batson and co. Secondly, it suggests that we shouldn’t expect to see Black Adam particularly soon. A Shazam! sequel is presumably at least a couple of years away and, seeing as it’s coming after that, the earliest we’ll get it is likely 2022.
Whenever it does arrive though, it sounds like Black Adam will be an important part of setting up a whole new pathway for the DC franchise. After all, other reports have stated that heroes like Hawkman, Stargirl and Atom Smasher will feature in the flick, which will sow the seeds for individual films for some of them as well as a Justice Society team-up movie.
Before all that happens, though, we have the first Shazam! to look forward to, and it’ll be with us early next month, on April 5th.
