Warner Bros. has recently dropped the opening footage scenes of the much-awaited DCEU film Black Adam. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson took to the virtual stage of DC FanDome this year and treated his fans with the scenes from the first few minutes of his superhero film. DJ stars in the titular superpowered anti-hero role. The movie is being directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who recently collaborated with Dwayne for The Jungle Cruise.
In the rare event that one has missed it, here is the clip from this year’s FanDome.
If one has been following DJ over various social media platforms, one must’ve clearly come across him posting glimpses and behind the scenes from Black Adam here and there. He captions most of these posts saying “hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is about to change“. And boy oh boy, wasn’t he right about that! If this footage is any indicator of what is to come, the heavyweights like Superman and Shazam should better take his words seriously and stay prepared.
A little bit of backstory of Black Adam
As we hear in the clip, “over 5,000 years ago, Kahndaq was a melting pot of cultures, wealth, power, and magic.” What also existed in this country was slavery. Teth-Adam was honored as champion by the Council of Wizards. He went on to become the ruler of Kahndaq as a result of his incredibly heroic and valiant acts with his newfound powers of a champion.
Though Adam uses his powers to protect his family, country and free the slaves, he eventually lets his powers corrupt him. Unfortunately for the World, some criminals murder his family when he is busy on the other end of the country. The lines between justice and vengeance are now blurred for him. Enraged by the murder of his family, he becomes extremely brutal and ruthless. By accident, he releases The Seven Deadly Enemies of the Man, to the world. This unfateful event kills millions and wipes entire civilizations. Without much choice, Shazam, the wizard, has to imprison him. There he is given the name of “Black Adam“.
Major characters we see from this clip of Black Adam
1. Hawk Man
Aldis Hodge is in the role of Hawkman. The superhero will be the reincarnation of an Egyptian Prince. He has the ability to fly, thanks to his metal wings. He is an archeologist in the present day and one day will come to lead the Justice Society into combat.
2. Cyclone
Then there’s Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, who has such great mastery over wind that she can create cyclones and blow adversaries away (literally). She can also fly and create sound waves with catastrophic effects.
3. Atom Smasher
Next, we have Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, who, like Ant-Man, can grow up to humongous size and has increased strength in proportion to his size.
4. Dr. Fate
Finally, Pierce Brosnan plays Doctor Fate who is the son of an archeologist. He is a master of sorcery and wielder of the Helmet of Fate. It bestows magical talents and capabilities upon him.
Four of them will together form the Justice Society. They will lead the charge against Black Adam.
5. Adrianna Tomaz
Sarah Shahi makes her first appearance as Adrianna Tomaz. She is also known as Isis and is Black Adam’s wife in the comics. However, her story appears to have been altered for the DCEU. Rather than following her traditional storyline in which she is delivered to Black Adam as a slave, whom he rescues and marries, Adrianna appears to be one of the explorers whose task is finding and freeing Adam from his imprisonment.
Black Adam with Isis from the comics (on the right)
6. Sabbac
Marwan Kenzari appears alongside Shahi’s Adrianna Tomaz as the second explorer. In the comics, he is shown as a dark version of Shazam and Black Adam, getting his powers from the dark magic word “Sabbacc” rather than “Shazam!”. It appears that he could be one of Black Adam’s antagonists, if not the main villain of the film. Sabbac will prove to be one hell of an opponent. According to comics, his powers are derived from Hell’s demons, rather than the Gods. If the filmmakers follow the same path as comics, we are in for some breathtaking action scenes.
Did you just awaken Black Adam?
We’ve seen countless times before some curious people tracking down ancient remains unintentionally unleashing an entity with unimaginable abilities. In this case, one of such people is Sarah Shahi’s Adrianna Tomaz. She is revealed just as a university professor and rebel fighter in Kahndaq, where Black Adam lived thousands of years ago. Tomaz appears to have a strong understanding of Black Adam and the power of Shazam, based on her ability to read the texts shown in front of Adam’s throne.
She pronounces the magical word “Shazam” and frees Black Adam from his 5,000 years old imprisonment. It’s still unclear whether this was Adrianna’s goal. In any case, she seems to be the one who ultimately freed the old monarch of Kahndaq in all his fury.
The Caped Baldy (no, not Saitama!) is unleashed:
Black Adam is free and is looking menacing as ever. He dons a hood that partially hides his face. While he won’t be wearing this hood for the duration of the film, it is a fun way to commemorate his comeback. This is an extraordinarily intense approach to introduce the Council of Wizards’ past champion.
Tomaz and Sabbac aren’t alone though as men armed with guns are also visible in the cavern. It’s unknown whether they’re working with the explorers, are mercenaries who follow them with their own objectives, or are something entirely different. Either way, one of them makes a grave mistake by approaching Black Adam. He immediately pays the price dearly. Adam grabs him by the throat before frying up his entire body including his skeleton, with his catastrophic lightning. This is a piece of strong evidence suggesting that Adam has retained all of his powers and abilities of a Champion, despite being imprisoned for generations.
One also gets a glimpse of some of his abilities. The first one is his superhuman reflexes and speed. The way he catches a bullet fired straight at him shows that he has perfected his abilities unlike Billy. The second one is his super build. Countless bullets fired at him bounced back as if they hit a steel wall. Finally, we see his ability to fly when he decides to clear his way from all this non-sense and sets off for flight.
This is the perfect money shot of Dwayne Johnson’s ‘Black Adam‘, completely visualizing him as the dark Champion of the Council of Wizards. And he is here to reclaim what was once his.
Release Updates of Black Adam:
Black Adam has been a passion project of Dwayne Johnson since almost 2008. The filming of Black Adam is now complete and it is now under post-production. This means we won’t have to wait long for its premiere in theaters. Originally slated to release on 22 December, 2021, it will now release on 29 July, 2022. Show up in the theaters with your family, because “The Man in Black” has put everyone on notice! You don’t want to mess with him, do you?
