When it was first confirmed several years ago that Dwayne Johnson would take on the role of Black Adam in the DCEU, many assumed that he’d be the main antagonist of the first Shazam! movie, given the pair’s comic book history. Nonetheless, it eventually turned out that Warner Bros. had other ideas in mind, and according to director David F. Sandberg, the villain was already off the table by the time he signed on for the project back in 2017.
The subject came up in an interview with ComicBook.com, prompting Sandberg to recall how the team never really considered giving Black Adam a major role in the movie.
“Yeah, when I came on board it was like, we’re already doing that standalone Shazam movie, you know,” Sandberg explained. “And I know the project existed in various forms before but I haven’t really, you know, I’m not really familiar with them all around.”
Like Sandberg said, the project went through various forms before he ever joined the team, but at the very least, it sounds like the exclusion of Black Adam was hardly a last-minute decision.
Back in August of last year, executive producer Hiram Garcia explained to Collider that they didn’t want to cram both Adam and Shazam into the same movie, arguing that giving each character their own standalone flick “really freed things up” and allowed them to develop “the right version of both.”
As it stands, details on Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam film remain vague, though it’s believed that the movie may begin shooting later this year. As for Shazam!, Billy Batson’s DCEU debut is set to hit theaters on April 5th, 2019, and will see Zachary Levi in the title role going up against the villainous Dr. Sivana, played by Mark Strong. Beyond that, the future for both Adam and Shazam is unclear, but if all goes well for their respective solo projects, then surely it’ll only be a matter of time before the pair cross paths.