The Rock Has Announced His ‘Black Adam’ Training With A Batch Of Over-The-Top Photos

Last November — four years after Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson first revealed his casting as the DCEU’s Black Adam — the actor posted a first look at how his character shall be rendered. Now that the holiday season’s officially over, Johnson’s hitting the gym in preparation. It must be noted, though, that this is no ordinary New Year’s fitness fixation, since the Hobbs and Shaw actor probably hits the gym for at least an hour even on his “off” days. Rather, The Rock has fully entered beast mode to show just how serious he’s taking the training phase for a role that’s (arguably) remained too long in the gestation phase. And let’s just say that he’s taking this role very seriously.

Shooting will officially begin this summer following the success of Shazam!, for which a deleted scene (included in the Blu-Ray release) suggested that Black Adam’s arrival was imminent. However, the movie’s planned take on this character, who was once Egypt’s greatest champion, remains somewhat nebulous, even in the recently brightened-up DCEU. In the comics, Black Adam has toed the supervillain-or-antihero line to varying degrees, so yeah, he could go either way. Yet alongside a pretty crazy-looking training photo, The Rock included an #antiherotraning tag, so that’d be a clue.

Also, my goodness, it looks like The Rock hasn’t enjoyed a cheat meal in weeks.

Previously, The Rock described his incarnation of Black Adam neither a supervillain nor an antihero but “a rebellious, one of a kind superhero” with “powers equal to SUPERMAN.” Will his corrupted powers from the comics still be intact? It’s genuinely difficult to guess where director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) will take the picture. One thing is for sure, though, The Rock’s leaping into 2020 with renewed fitness focus. He posted these photos a few days ago, and this is intense stuff.

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