The Rock Releases A First Look At How He’ll Appear In The DCEU’s Long-Awaited ‘Black Adam’ Movie

Over four years ago, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson first revealed his casting as the DCEU’s Black Adam. And earlier this year, he called himself a “fan boy” while declaring that the project finally nabbed a director (Jaume Collet-Serra), along with word that shooting would begin sometime in 2020. Until now, it hasn’t been entirely clear whether The Rock would be playing a supervillain or antihero take on the character — the comics have made the character dance upon that fine line to varying degrees — but we’re hearing more on the matter, once again from The Rock himself.

The long-gestating movie is beginning production soon after the success of April’s Shazam!, and a deleted scene from that movie (from the film’s Blu-Ray release) suggested that Black Adam would arrive on the scene soon. That moment occurred when Shazam!/Billy Batson and his newly-installed superhero family plopped down on their ancient thrones and noticed that one remained vacant. Again, there was still the question of whether Black Adam, once Egypt’s greatest champion, would appear with his corrupted powers still intact. Well, the Rock Instagrammed a first look at his character, and his lengthy caption calls Black Adam neither a supervillain nor an antihero but “a rebellious, one of a kind superhero.” Interesting, and we’ve also got a release date.

To further clarify, coming from The Rock, this character will officially be a superhero: “BLACK ADAM is blessed by magic with the powers equal to SUPERMAN, but the difference is he doesn’t toe the mark or walk the line. He’s a rebellious, one of a kind superhero, who’ll always do what’s right for the people – but he does it his way. Truth and justice – the BLACK ADAM way. This role is unlike any other I’ve ever played in my career and I’m grateful to the bone we’ll all go on this journey together.”

Black Adam will arrive in theaters on December 22, 2021.