It’s been a long time coming, but it looks like Black Adam may be on the verge of finally finding its director. Jaume Collet-Serra is reportedly in talks to front the highly-anticipated movie starring superstar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The anti-hero story has been trying to get off the ground for over a year and now seems to at last be preparing to film in the not-so-distant future.
Collet-Serra burst onto the scene with the 2016 shark movie The Shallows and the 2018 Liam Neeson thriller The Commuter. The director is currently working behind the camera on Disney’s Jungle Cruise, too, which also stars Johnson. It’s unknown if this already established working relationship is what caused executives to consider Collet-Serra for the job, but it seems likely that it helped his chances.
Following the stellar performance of Shazam! earlier this year, DC is intent to capitalize on the success of the hilarious hero. Black Adam is the arch-nemesis of Billy Baston’s alter ego and a standalone film for him will no doubt help casual fans become more familiar with the character. Considering the fact that a sequel to the aforementioned Zachary Levi movie is in the works as well, it’s probable that the two opposing forces will face off onscreen in the near future.
Of course, Black Adam is the latest example of DC’s attempt to give every character their own mini-cinematic universe. This is already happening with The Batman and Birds of Prey, both of which are expected to be huge hits when they roll into theaters. It’s unknown if Johnson’s movie will mirror the same dark tone as those two origin stories and attempt to get an R-rating or go for the usual PG-13 rating like Shazam!, but we’ll be interested to see.
Either way, it’s difficult not to be excited for this film. Now that Black Adam appears close to locking in a director, everything else should start to fall into place. And if all goes as planned, audiences could be seeing the movie hit theaters in 2021.
