by Conan Simmons – October 14, 2020 – 5:48 pm
Spin-off of last year’s ‘Shazam!’ superhero fantasy is gearing up to start filming in the coming months. Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson is set to star as eponymous super-villain ‘Black Adam’ in film he has been attached to for the better part of a decade.
Not much is known about the plot other than it will feature the possible formation of super-hero group, the Justice Society of America who will team up to defeat the dastardly evil-doer. Recent casting seems to confirm at least part of the movie will take place in fictional country of Kahndaq. Fans of the comics, or even the 1941 movie serial, may be familiar with such places.
‘Black Adam’ will have Dwayne Johnson teaming up again with director Jaume Collet-Serra. The duo recently worked together on ‘Jungle Cruise’, an action-adventure film that like most movies this year delayed its release to 2021.
Joining Dwayne Johnson in the cast of ‘Black Adam’ is Aldis Hodge who will play Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, both founding members of the Justice Society of America. New addition to the cast is Sarah Shahi who will play a university professor and freedom fighter of Kahndaq.
Aldis Hodge made his film debut in 1995’s ‘Die Hard with a Vengeance’. Recently he can be seen in ‘The Invisible Man’ and as Jim Brown in the upcoming drama ‘One Night in Miami’.
Noah Centineo is currently set to play Prince Adam / He-Man in adaptation of cartoon fantasy ‘Masters of the Universe’, currently in pre-production.
Sarah Shahi will be returning to the world of comic book heroes with this film after voicing the villainess Killer Frost in animated series ‘Young Justice’ back in 2011.
The character of Black Adam first appeared in The Marvel Family comic books in December 1945 published by Fawcett comics. Created by C.C. Beck and Otto Binder. This was long before DC comics took over the characters following a lengthy court battle. It was also back when Shazam was still under the name Captain Marvel, no relation to popular Marvel comics character as portrayed by Brie Larson in last year’s blockbuster. (If you saw the movie you’d have caught the pun.)
Shazam first appeared in Whiz Comics #2 published in February 1940. Created by C.C. Beck and Bill Parker. A movie serial, ‘The Adventures of Captain Marvel’ was quickly made and released in March 1941 starring Tom Tyler as Captain Marvel and Frank Coghlan, Jr. as Billy Batson.
In the early 1940’s Captain Marvel (Shazam!) outsold Superman making it the most popular comic book character at the time. DC noticed that Captain Marvel was copying its Superman stories and brought forth a lawsuit. The case went to trial in 1948 and settled in DC’s favor in 1954. Soon after Fawcett sold the Marvel Family characters along with many other titles to Charlton comics.
In 1967 Marvel comics created a new character named Captain Marvel and thereby obtained the trademark for the name. The original Captain Marvel (Shazam!) having been out of circulation for some time was eventually licensed to DC comics in 1972 and incorporated into their superhero universe. Due to Marvel comics owning the trademark this forced DC to essentially rename the character Shazam, after his popular catch phrase. DC finally purchased Shazam (Captain Marvel) in 1994 after an acquisition of Charlton comics. (Many of the Charlton characters were used as templates for Alan Moore’s Watchmen after DC refused Alan Moore the rights to use the characters.)
‘Black Adam’, originally set for release in December 2021 may be pushed back to 2022 due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’, the sequel to 2019’s ‘Shazam!’ will be released in June 2023 starring Zachary Levi who reprises the title role. It is expected that Dwayne Johnson will reprise Black Adam for that film.
For other Charlton comics characters, John Cena will be playing Peacemaker in James Gunn’s upcoming ‘The Suicide Squad’ as well as a ‘Peacemaker’ series for HBOMax. The character was the template for the Comedian, violent anti-hero of Watchmen. Jeffrey Dean Morgan played the role in the 2009 film.