Last month Dwayne Johnson teased fans with an existential dilemma, should he play Shazam? Or should he play Black Adam? And now we know. Johnson will be playing Black Adam in the upcoming DC Comics Shazam adaptation.
Warner Bros. is rumored to have tentatively scheduled a Shazam movie for 2016, which would be right after the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, so this could all tie into their (seemingly rushed) master plan to establish a wider cinematic universe. Hit the jump for more on Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam.
Johnson tweeted out the following this morning:
Here’s the official bio for Black Adam:
Long ago, the council of wizards—powerful beings that held dominion over all magic in the world—chose the warrior Black Adam as their champion, granting him vast magical powers and abilities. However, that power only further skewed Adam’s already maligned moral compass, and rather than use his newfound gifts to help others, he used it to dominate them.
Adam turned against the wizards and after a brutal battle was imprisoned for thousands of years. But now he is free once more, and his insatiable quest to conquer the world, to control all magic, continues. The only thing that stands in his way is Shazam!, the new champion of magic—and Black Adam will do anything in his power to destroy him and assert his position as the true ruler of the world.
Driven by a need to rule, incredibly arrogant and one of the most powerful beings on the planet, Black Adam lives by a simple creed: kneel at his feet or be crushed by his boot. [DC]
What do you think? I can't imagine too many complaints from DC fans given the charisma of The Rock.
Click here for what New Line president Toby Emmerich said about the tone of the Shazam movie and Black Adam's antihero status.