‘Black Adam’: Dwayne Johnson Pressured for Solo Film, Director Explains the Justice Society of America Dynamics
With the release of Black Adam this October, the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is about to change, says The Rock.
He’s been saying as much for a couple of years, but now, it seems like he’ll finally have the chance to show us what he means. The new DC movie will be released on October 21 and will see the introduction of Dwayne Johnson as the titular character. In a new feature by Vanity Fair, Anthony Breznican takes us behind the cameras of Black Adam, with a set of black and white images and interviews with the lead actor and the director. Johnson, who has been a champion for the character and the movie for years (he was first announced to be playing him in 2014), explained what he meant with his “hierarchy of power” quote:
“When you pull Black Adam out of the pantheon of superheroes in the DC Universe, he is blessed with these incredible superpowers from the gods that rival Superman. The difference is, well, a few things. Number one, Superman’s greatest weakness is magic, and one of Black Adam’s greatest superpowers is magic.”
And he is, quite literally, not pulling any punches. “Black Adam’s real name is Teth-Adam,” Johnson explained to Vanity Fair. “And the Black in Black Adam refers to his soul.” He went on to explain the main differences between Black Adam and Superman:
“Superman won’t kill anybody. There’s a code that he lives by and he honors. Black Adam has a unique code of ethics too. He will not hesitate—and I like to have a little fun when I’m explaining this—to rip somebody in half. Literally, he’ll grab someone by the neck and by the thigh and then rip them up, tear them apart.”
As DC fans may know, the character is the archnemesis of another superhero coming to the big screen soon — or returning in this case, as it’s none other than Shazam, played by Zachary Levi. The first Shazam! movie came out in 2019 to solid reviews and a lukewarm box office reception. However, as Johnson confirmed to Vanity Fair, that movie was originally going to introduce both Shazam and Black Adam, and was going to have a fight between the two:
“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.
I made a phone call. 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.’”
On a recent Twitter post, Johnson added that by separating the Shazam! movie into two origin stories, they would be “[protecting] Black Adam’s ruthless & extremely violent tone as we build out [the DCEU].”
But knowing about the Shazam vs. Black Adam comic history will not be necessary homework when audiences walk into the multiplexes in October, as it’s usually the case with these superhero movies that try to appeal to as many people as possible. Director Jaume Collet-Serra confirmed as much to Vanity Fair, when he said that he himself wasn’t that familiar with the character when he jumped aboard the ship. He then added that this will be very different from other comic-book movies, as the main character will already be established in the world of DC, and will be very aware of his powers:
“It’s not your typical superhero movie where a guy wants to be a superhero and gets the powers, and then you spend 50 minutes trying to figure out how the powers work. This is a movie where you introduce Black Adam right away, and then throughout the movie you slowly peel back the onion and reveal what happened.”
And what happened? Teth-Adam was a slave in the Middle Eastern realm of Kahndaq, who turn to the dark side after an unspeakable tragedy struck his family. Johnson explained how this is something that will be relatable to every member of the audience:
“That’s something that’s universal, that everyone can relate to. It doesn’t matter your color, or religion, or what your bank account says, or wherever you live, or what your job is. I mean, everybody can relate to family and wanting to do all you can to protect that family. And when your family’s ripped away from you…it changes the person.”
Collet-Serra explained how they used Dirty Harry as a blueprint for Black Adam’s story in the movie:
“I talked early on with D.J. about how there were many similar aspects between Black Adam and Dirty Harry, which is a movie that broke rules in the ’70s. The systems were corrupt, so you had criminals taking advantage. You needed a cop that would cut through the bullshit, and basically do what needs to be done. That’s very much in line with Black Adam and his way of thinking. I think that’s appealing to pretty much everybody. Everybody knows how the world sometimes is not fair, and you need people that break the rules to even out the playing field.”
Johnson then added how that mentality applies to the character when he’s brought back into our timeline:
“His view of this world that he is brought back into—the current world, now, after 5,000 years—is very myopic. There’s no room or space for him being wrong. There’s no room or space for anyone else’s opinion. There’s only room and space for him justifying anything that he does because of his pain. And he pushes and pushes and pushes and does not see any other way. It’s very black and white.”
Black Adam’s actions will inspire a team of heroes to oppose and confront him. This is the Justice Society of America, a team of superheroes that predates the Justice League of America, and that in the movie is led by Hawkman, played by Aldis Hodge, a human with wings made of extraterrestrial metal that has been reincarnating ceaselessly since the Egyptian era. Collet-Serra described the character as follows:
“He is a very driven character that knows that he’s on the right side. Definitely, he’s a leader. He wants to bring this team together, and bring a certain stability to the world. Hawkman has a very strong sense of what’s right or wrong, and Black Adam challenges that.”
The JSA’s next member is Doctor Fate, played in the movie by Pierce Brosnan. This is a character whose greatest superpower might be his natural-born charisma, something that, as the director explained, might be useful when trying to reason with Johnson’s titular character:
“You need a special actor to play, basically, a legend. Dr. Fate is a very powerful being, so you need someone like Pierce who can play powerful without it being overly done. He can do it in a very subtle way. I mean, he’s one of the coolest people in the world—he was James Bond! But as a person, he’s magnetic, so warm with such gravitas.”
Next up, we have Cyclone, played in the movie by Quintessa Swindell. While Cyclone comes from a family of heroes (she is the granddaughter of Red Tornado), she has never really seen combat. The director explained how this made the movie feel fresh in some specific moments:
“It’s always fun when you introduce characters in a team that have never really seen combat before, so the audience gets to experience it through those fresh eyes. And the same with Atom Smasher, even though Atom Smasher is a bit more experienced. They’re close in age, and together they have a bond: We are the new ones here, let’s not screw it up.”
And last but not least, we have Noah Centineo playing Atom Smasher. Collet-Serra explained the character’s arc in the movie:
“He’s still not sure that this is what he wants to do. He thinks this is what he wants to do. He thinks he’s on the right side, but he has a lot more questions.”
The four will team up as the Justice Society of America, marking this the first time the classic DC team is portrayed on screen (the same goes for the titular character).
-
- Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam
-
- Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate
-
- Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher
Black Adam will debut in theaters on October 21. The movie is also on the cover of next month’s Total Film Magazine, so look forward to more coverage from them coming soon:
Our #BlackAdam issue is on sale on Thursday 18 August, but you can preorder a copy here: https://t.co/ziWzBNfW3l pic.twitter.com/44yLKTD6fm
— Total Film (@totalfilm) August 12, 2022
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
