Dwayne Johnson is setting up a battle very much like his hero character Black Adam. The Rock will join the DC universe in a feature film spinning around the screw-up character.
“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,” Johnson told Vanity Fair.
"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.’
Johnson would then talk with studio chiefs to offer his viewpoints on separating the characters into having their own movies and rejoining them in a likely standoff not too far off.
"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."
Eventually, Johnson won, and both Shazam! and Black Adam, have their independent movies and will live in a similar DC universe giving fans what they need.
Black Adam is set to release in theaters on October 21, 2022.