Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has shared two new looks of his Black Adam and the Justice Society of America on the cover of Total Film Magazine. The first image features Johnson in the titular avatar alongside Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, and Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate. The image also features Johnson’s sentiment about the character, “this is a once in a career character – a departure from anything that I’ve played before.” The next image features a yellow-washed vector version of the antihero on the cover with the entire focus on his green glowing eyes.
Black Adam is indeed a character the likes of which we haven’t seen in the superhero genre as well as in Johnson’s body of work. In DC Comics, the super-powered antihero was initially introduced as the nemesis of Shazam! but later was redefined as a corrupted antihero attempting to clear his name and reputation. By far from what we can gather from the trailers and other marketing material, the live-action version seems to adopt the latter storyline but not before Adam has done much harm and shows us the full extent of his powers.
The trailer revealed at the recently held San Diego Comic-Con further shows fans that the Justice Society of America is there to keep Adam in check and cements his choices as Doctor Fate tells Adam about his two paths: he can either be the destroyer of the world or be its savior. Come what may, one thing is for sure, in Johnson’s own words, “the DC universe will never be the same, again.”
Johnson’s words ring more ominous now that new Warner Bros CEO David Zaslav’s regime has taken over the studio and has cut down several projects recently, including Leslie Garce’s straight to HBO Max Batgirl movie. Along with Shazam! Fury of the Gods and next year's The Flash, Johnson’s passion project has been among the survivors of the massive restructuring at Warner Bros. In these times of unprecedented change at the studio, it’ll be interesting to see how Black Adam fares upon release.
Black Adam is set to premiere in theaters on October 21. You can check out the posters and the synopsis for the upcoming movie below.
Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods-and imprisoned just as quickly-Black Adam (Johnson) is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world.