There has been some speed bumps along the way, but Dwayne Johnson is getting closer to achieving his dream of being the people’s superhero. The professional wrestler turned actor announced his DC Comics movie Black Adam is now set to premiere in the summer of 2022.
Johnson will be playing the antihero Black Adam, an archenemy of Shazam, who will attempt to find his redemption. On Sunday, the actor took to Instagram and shared video footage of the release announcement. It was an animated movie poster playing across Time Square’s famous digital screens — one of New York’s popular landmarks.
As the Black Adam logo and premiere date flashes on screen, Dwayne Johnson with an ominous voiceover says, “The hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is about to change.”
The caption reads, “A disruptive and unstoppable global force of a message from the man in black himself. ‘Black Adam’ is coming July 29, 2022.”
Black Adam will be Johnson’s debut as a DC character and is the enemy of Shazam, which is played by Zachary Levi in the DC Extended Universe.
Dwayne Johnson revealed the project back in 2019 and gave more details during DC Fandome’s virtual event last year. He said the role of Black Adam was “unlike any other I’ve ever played in my career.”
“As a kid, Superman was the hero I always wanted to be. But, a few years into my fantasy, I realized that Superman was the hero, I could never be. I was too rebellious. Too rambunctious. Too resistant to convention and authority,” he wrote in an Instagram post.
Johnson added Black Adam is “blessed by magic with the powers equal to SUPERMAN, but the difference is he doesn’t toe the mark or walk the line. He’s a rebellious, one of a kind superhero, who’ll always do what’s right for the people – but he does it his way.”
Black Adam also stars Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, and is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows/Jungle Cruise).
Originally slated for December 2021, but Warner Bros. took the DC film off they schedule back in October 2020. The film now has a July 29th, 2022 release date, which was confirmed days after former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan was announced he’ll be joining the cast as Doctor Fate.
