For many heading to the theater later this year to watch DC’s Black Adam, the backstory of the antihero and fellow DC Comics characters joining him on the big screen will still be largely foreign. Aldis Hodge, who plays Hawkman in the film, has reassured moviegoers that the upcoming superhero flick has satisfying entry points for both uninformed and avid comics fans.
Black Adam was initially set to feature in the 2019 DC Extended Universe film, Shazam! as an important piece of the superhero’s backstory but, in the end, Johnson decided they each deserved their own separate origin story. Even for those who aren’t familiar with the source material, and have only followed the DC world through the big screen, they will maybe remember a throwaway mention of Black Adam in Shazam! when the ancient wizard Shazam says his previous champion released the Seven Deadly Sins. Yep, that was Black Adam.
“There is a lot of history to figure out about where to start with this character,” Hodge told Screen Rant about Hawkman, who is the reincarnation of the Egyptian prince who enslaved Black Adam, and also the leader of the Justice Society of America. All these layers could become quite confusing if the viewers don’t have any background information on the characters, but Hodge says Black Adam‘s starting point is “a great place” for both those “who know and love [Hawkman] and what [Black Adam] is” and the people looking to discover these characters for the first time.
“If you’re a fan, you’re going to get what you want, you’re going to get what you need,” Hodge says, adding that, on the other hand, “If you don’t know anything about this, you’re going to get everything you need to know to learn about what this [character] is.” He believes the movie will turn viewers into fans of his character. “They started this character and this team in the exact right spot for making this whole thing just take off,” he concluded.
Black Adam also features Noah Centineo as Albert “Al” Rothstein/Atom Smasher, Sarah Shahi as Adrianna Tomaz/Isis, and Pierce Brosnan as Kent Nelson/Doctor Fate, among other stars. It hits theaters Oct. 21, 2022.