Dwayne Johnson Reveals He Fought To Keep Black Adam Out Of “Shazam!”

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson says that he fought to keep Black Adam separate from the movie, Shazam!, arguing that the character deserved his backstory to be explored in his own film. The character of Black Adam was originally planned to be involved in the film, as the two are enemies in the comic books, but when Johnson was cast, the plot of the movie was reworked to give The Rock his own standalone project.

Johnson explained the situation during a recent interview with Vanity Fair: “When the first draft of the movie came to us, it was a combination of Black Adam and Shazam: Two origin stories in one movie. Now that was the goal — so it wasn’t a complete surprise. But when I read that, I just knew in my gut, ‘We can’t make this movie like this. We would be doing Black Adam an incredible disservice.’ It would’ve been fine for Shazam having two origin stories converge in one movie, but not good for Black Adam.”

He continued: “I said, ‘I have to share my thoughts here. It’s very unpopular’ because everybody thought, ‘Hey, this script is great, let’s go make this movie.’ I said, ‘I really think that you should make ‘Shazam!,’ make that movie on its own in the tone that you want. And I think we should separate this as well.’”

The Rock ended up getting his wish and Shazam! was released as its own film in 2018. As for Black Adam, the movie is scheduled to hit theaters on October 21, 2022.

It’s likely that The Rock’s Black Adam will cross paths with Zachary Levi’s Shazam at some point in the future, as the Shazam! sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, is due out later this year.