Originally published January 4, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
Shazam! hasn’t actually started production yet, but Dwayne “The Rock” is certainly excited to play the antihero/villain Black Adam, as per a recent Q&A on his YouTube channel.
Johnson was asked why he sought the role, replying “I love the role of Black Adam. I love that he starts off as a slave, that he felt like he was wronged. I just love that backstory, and I think that Black Adam has always been, for me, the most intriguing superhero.”
This falls in line with an interview about the character from March 2015, where The Rock said: “I felt ultimately- and this is with all due respect to Shazam and Billy Batson, it’s a mythology I love, it’s been with me for almost ten years now – what made me choose Black Adam… I just felt Black Adam was inherently more interesting to me because I felt there were more layers to Black Adam, starting out as a slave and then ultimately becoming the anti-hero who we enjoy today… In 2007 or 2008 I publicly took a swing, I asked the fans, who would you rather see me play and I really left it up to them because at that time we were developing with Warner Bros. and New Line, and Black Adam won out.”
SEE ALSO: Dwayne Johnson teasing Superman appearance in Shazam?
Shazam is set for release on April 5th 2019.
