With Black Adam being delayed, both in terms of production and release, thanks to the pandemic, DC fans certainly felt like they had waited an age to see the movie before it finally hit theaters last month. But the mere handful of years viewers had to withstand to watch it is nothing compared to just how long The Rock himself was carrying around his burning desire to bring Teth-Adam to life. And he’s got the receipts to prove it.
Those in the know will be aware that Dwayne Johnson was first attached to play the champion of Kahndaq way back in the tail-end of the 2000s. Sure enough, the DCU’s savior has taken to Twitter to share a mind-blowing throwback video from 2009, in which a fresh-faced Johnson chats about his love for Black Adam and how he’s excited to get the chance to portray the character.
“I’m sure the movie eventually will get made,” he says in the clip. And how right he was, even though Young Rock probably didn’t expect it to take quite as long as it did…
As well as reminding us of a time when Dwayne Johnson had hair, this video also serves as an eye-opening piece of evidence that DC is plagued by the same problems today as it was back then, with The Rock talking—very diplomatically—about how he’s had creative differences with execs, something that has been the bane of the franchise once more in recent times. Although hopefully that’s all over now that James Gunn and Peter Safran are the new Co-CEOs of DC Studios.
13 years later, Black Adam is finally here to change the hierarchy of power in the DC universe, not to mention the box office.