Though Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam was originally set to appear in 2019’s Shazam!, plans changed along the way and it was decided that Black Adam would instead make his debut in his own movie. Producer Hiram Garcia recently explained this decision was made to make sure both characters were afforded enough time to tell their respective stories.
“So as we were developing an actual Black Adam and Shazam! movie, we were just realizing that both characters are so special that we didn’t want to compromise either of them by cramming them both into the same movie,” Garcia told Collider. “So that’s why we made the decision to let Shazam have his own standalone movie and kind of launch him properly, and then we’ll do the same for Black Adam. And so that kind of really freed things up. It allowed us to develop the right version of both.”
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While discussing the scripting process for Black Adam, Garcia also gave some insight as to how the character would be portrayed. “It’s going to deliver on the goods of everything you’d want to see Black Adam do, he’s going to be doing in this film,” Garcia shared. “Especially when he’s not a boy scout. Especially when he’s got edge to him. Like, he’s not the boy scout superhero, he’s the guy that’s like, okay, you cross him? Well, I rip your head off, and then I move on to the next guy.”
Notably, Shazam! seems to be going for a more comedic tone than we’re used to from DC, whereas Black Adam promises to be a little more intense.
Arriving April 5, 2019, director David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! stars Asher Angel as Billy Batson, Zachary Levi as Shazam, Mark Strong as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, Djimon Hounsou as an ancient wizard named Shazam, Grace Fulton as Mary Bromfield, Jack Dylan Grazer as Frederick “Freddy” Freeman, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña, Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, Cooper Andrews as Victor Vásquez and Marta Milans as Rosa Vásquez. Black Adam does not currently have a release date, but production of the film could begin in 2019.