The Rock's long in-development movie Black Adam is finally on the way, and a few factors make it the ideal superhero role for Dwayne Johnson.
Dwayne Johnson will take on the role of the titular anti-hero in the upcoming Black Adam, and it's the superhero movie role The Rock is best suited to adopt. Following COVID-19 related production delays and many preceding years of development hell, Black Adam is set to hit theaters on July 29, 2022. With The Rock also voicing Krypto the Superdog in the animated film DC's League of Super Pets, the coming summer will be a major transition for him into comic book movies.
Black Adam is perhaps one of the most ambitious superhero films in recent memory. Aside from Johnson's portrayal of Adam, the movie will also introduce the Justice Society of America, specifically Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo). Johnson has also emphasized Adam's debut as a power shift in the DC Universe, while his endgame remains to pit Black Adam against Henry Cavill's Superman.
Black Adam's marketing has been of the teaser rather than trailer variety thus far, partly as a result of the pandemic that the film has had to work through. Nevertheless, Black Adam's teasers have given a decent reveal the epic scale the movie is going for. What's more, when looking at The Rock's career as a whole, there's no better superhero role for him than Black Adam.
Johnson's huge height and build make him a powerful screen presence in virtually anything. Even in the early days of his career, movies like The Game Plan built upon his background by casting him as a professional NFL player. The Rock has done some relatively down-to-Earth roles, such as in The Rundown, Walking Tall, and Skyscraper. Still, even these knew that he was impossible to miss in a crowd.
The Fast & Furious movies were also very aware of how Luke Hobbs fit into the ensemble, The Rock's lawman nicknamed "Samoan Thor" by Ludacris' Tej. Entering a comic book film, Johnson would be the least believable presence as a human supporting character or a non-superpowered hero. Black Adam's backstory and power levels fit right into the kind of superhero movie character Johnson would be the most believable as. At the same time, while Black Adam fits Johnson the best, the character is simultaneously a rather significant switch for him.
Looking over Dwayne Johnson's career, the characters he's portrayed tend to be likeable and generally light-hearted. While Johnson made his big-screen debut as Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns (bad CGI and all), the character was revamped into the heroic Mathayus in the spin-off The Scorpion King barely a year later. The total number of villain roles The Rock's taken on in his career could be counted on one hand, and this is advantageous for Black Adam.
While the movie will adhere to Adam's contemporary anti-hero status, his methods are still of the sort that most other heroes eschew. Johnson is quite possibly for the first time playing a protagonist whom the audience won't be entirely on the side of. After characters like Luke Hobbs or Roadblock in G.I. Joe: Retaliation, that's quite a switch for The Rock, especially in his superhero debut. Paradoxically, Black Adam is both the best comic book character for Johnson to tackle and the one most counterintuitive with his body of work due to Adam's more darkly heroic nature. That combination makes Black Adam a big question mark, and in a decidedly intriguing way.
The interesting thing about the setting of Black Adam is that it won't be a singular one. The movie will dive into Black Adam's origins as a slave in Kahndaq before being granted his powers. It will also have a more modern setting, with Adam's tomb being unearthed by archaeologists led by Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi), who eventually becomes Isis. Black Adam clearly has the tone of an adventure story at its heart, and in the context of Johnson's career, this has been his bread and butter.
Beginning with the Scorpion King and The Rundown, many of Johnson's movies have injected some Indiana Jones-style DNA into their stories. 2014's Hercules is a clear example, while Johnson's movies under his Seven Bucks Productions banner have been particularly adventure-laden. Some of the best examples have included the Jumanji films, Jungle Cruise, and Red Notice. Even the Fast & Furious series, and the Hobbs & Shaw spin-off in particular, dabble in an adventurous tone in stories that jump from one corner of the world to another.
Black Adam is tailor made to be a fantasy-driven adventure story. Its hero's journey spans literally centuries, while the story also brings in elements like the ancient nation of Kahndaq and its archaeological rediscovery. The Rock's career has seen him take on comedy, sci-fi, and action, but the essence of his success has sprung from his predilection for adventure stories. Dropping right as the 2022 summer movie season will be wrapping up, Black Adam might be its most adventurous blockbuster of all. With The Rock excelling so much in adventure movies, Black Adam feels that much more like his perfect superhero story to tell.
Johnson's showmanship made the teases of Black Adam at 2020's DC FanDome and its 2021 follow-up one of the event's major highlights both years. As Black Adam gets closer to its debut, that'll doubtlessly kick into overdrive and is further evidence that Johnson picked the perfect spot to dive into superhero movies. What makes Black Adam even more unique is how gray the conflict of the film already looks. Adam himself is an anti-hero who shows no mercy, the JSA follow a more traditional code, and the appearance of the Intergang gives them a common enemy. Johnson's determination to face Cavill's Man of Steel also demonstrates that Adam won't adopt a kinder, gentler approach to heroism by the end of his big-screen debut. Between that and the adventurous but edgy tone of Black Adam, the film and the character alike are The Rock's ideal foray into the superhero world.
