It’s happening. Sweet Christmas. Oops wrong comic universe. But it is Christmas for those who have been waiting for Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam to finally go before the cameras.
For those unaware of the character, Black Adam was created by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck for DC Comics. The anti-hero is one of the archenemies of the superhero Shazam! and the nemesis of the Shazam Family.
The superhero/villain first appeared as a one-time villain for the first issue of Fawcett Comics‘ The Marvel Family comic book (December 1945). However, Black Adam was revived as a recurring character after DC Comics first licensed and then acquired the Fawcett characters and began publishing Shazam/formerly Captain Marvel Family stories under the title Shazam! in the 1970s.
For a long time, it felt like the project would go the way of so many announced Warner Bros./DC titles. In other words, nowhere. However, a series of delays due mostly to the pandemic, cameras are rolling on Dwayne Johnson’s first DCEU film.
“History in the making, extremely excited and what a humbling moment to share with you. Officially kicking off day 1 of filming our Black Adam,” Johnson says in the Instagram post below.
“Our Director and maestro, Jaume Collet-Serra. Our Academy Award nominee (Joker), Director of Photography, Lawrence Sher. We have an all star production crew – incredibly talented, galvanized, committed and focused to raise the bar and deliver something special for the world.”
“This one is an honor,” he concludes.
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Black Adam is being directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who recently collaborated with Dwayne Johnson on Disney’s Jungle Cruise. Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani wrote the latest draft of the script. Adam Sztykiel worked on a previous draft.
In addition to Johnson, Black Adam also stars Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone and Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate. Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, James Cusati-Moyer and Bodhi Sabongui are also on board in undisclosed roles.
Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia of Seven Bucks Productions are producing with Beau Flynn of FlynnPictureCo. FlynnPictureCo’s Scott Sheldon serves as an executive producer.
Black Adam is currently scheduled to hit theaters on December 22, 2021.
The Geek is a working screenwriter, director and screenwriting instructor.
