Dwayne Johnson is Black Adam, the DC anti-hero with an “old-fashioned” taste for justice and an insatiable thirst for righting perceived wrongs, even if his methods are, well, quite brutal.
He quickly earns a spot on the radar of the Justice League, and the upcoming film set to tell his story will be unlike what fans have seen before. In addition to super strength, power, and an attention-grabbing persona, Black Adam is also set to expand the DC Universe as we know it.
In a chat with Games Radar, Johnson and producer Hiram Garcia talk about the complex nature of the anti-hero and how the first movie will break open a new realm of possibility.
Johnson says the idea is to really flesh out the universe and to do so with intent.
“The goal is to really expand the universe, and introduce new characters, and spin-off, and be really strategic about the plan. We have a few ideas of what characters people are really going to respond to in Black Adam, and so we’re already thinking ahead to: ‘Let’s start thinking about that movie, and what that movie looks like for them.'”
Garcia went on to add that the plan has always been a shared realm, even if certain heroes aren’t going to be joining forces anytime soon. That’s not to say that the ideas aren’t being shared and conversations aren’t already happening — it’s just a nod to the depth and wide range of the universe and how many opportunities there are.
“I think our ambition has always been that this is all a shared universe, you know? While Black Adam and Shazam may not be crossing paths, everything exists in a big umbrella of the DC universe. And we want to be able to build out the universe as big as we can, and, you know, with those ambitions. If everything’s received the way we hope it will be, we have opportunities to potentially see crossovers in certain points.”
Johnson and Garcia have both put a lot of themselves into the project, and we’re sure audiences worldwide will love the movie — further opening that door for an exciting future. Plus, Jaume Collet-Serra recently told Vanity Fair that the movie is all about peeling back layers, so we’ll need more than one film to flesh out the character.
Black Adam hits theaters on Oct. 21 — just in time for spooky season, and face it; it’s going to get spooky.