Black Adam Saves The World?

Last Friday, Warner Bros. Discovery released the second and final trailer for Black Adam. Technically, it’s being released through New Line Cinema, because somehow they laid claim to all things Shazam! related. Yet pieces of the “main” DCEU are clearly here. Viola Davis returns from Suicide Squad, The Suicide Squad, and Peacemaker as Amanda Waller, and from the looks of things, while she didn’t make Teth Adam (Dwayne Johnson) wake up cranky, she sure didn’t help.

Though it’s not explicit in the trailer, it’s still likely that Black Adam got his powers from the old wizard Shazam, but we’ve been promised for quite some time that Jaume Collet-Serra’s collaboration with Johnson would be tonally different from Shazam! and the upcoming Shazam!! Fury of the Gods. At any rate, Djimon Honsou isn’t credited as Shazam, and Geoff Johns’ comics update on the Shazam Family created a different answer for the empty chair at the end of the first film. Maybe they won’t be as tightly connected as some of us fanboys would assume.

As much as I think Johnson is pretty spot on for this role, it’s still the Justice Society that has me most intrigued. Audiences have gotten enough familiarity with superhero tropes that we can just get some great characters without going deep into their backstory. We don’t need to see Ma Hunkel, the original Red Tornado, to enjoy her descendant Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell). On the other hand, there’s plenty of room for Aldis Hodge’s take on Hawkman to fly off into his own story. And there’s a secret villain (of course) that we catch a glimpse of in the trailer. Though I know who it is, I won’t spoil it.

Ready for October 21st?

From New Line Cinema:

Dwayne Johnson stars in the action adventure “Black Adam.” The first-ever feature film to explore the story of the DC Super Hero comes to the big screen under the direction of Jaume Collet-Serra (“Jungle Cruise”).

In ancient Kahndaq, Teth Adam was bestowed the almighty powers of the gods. After using these powers for vengeance, he was imprisoned, becoming Black Adam. Nearly 5,000 years have passed and Black Adam has gone from man, to myth, to legend. Now released, his unique form of justice, born out of rage, is challenged by modern day heroes who form the Justice Society: Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Atom Smasher and Cyclone.

Johnson stars alongside Aldis Hodge (“City on a Hill,” “One Night in Miami”) as Hawkman, Noah Centineo (“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”) as Atom Smasher, Sarah Shahi (“Sex/Life,” “Rush Hour 3”), Marwan Kenzari (“Murder on the Orient Express,” “The Mummy”), Quintessa Swindell (“Voyagers,” “Trinkets”) as Cyclone, Mo Amer (“Mo,” “Ramy”), Bodhi Sabongui (“A Million Little Things”), and Pierce Brosnan (the “Mamma Mia!” and James Bond franchises) as Dr. Fate.

Collet-Serra directed from a screenplay written by Adam Sztykiel and Rory Haines & Sohrab Noshirvani, based on characters from DC, based on characters created by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck. The film’s producers are Beau Flynn, Hiram Garcia, Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia, with Toby Emmerich, Richard Brener, Dave Neustadter, Chris Pan, Walter Hamada, Adam Schlagman, Geoff Johns, Eric McLeod and Scott Sheldon executive producing.

The director’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes Oscar-nominated director of photography Lawrence Sher (“Joker”), production designer Tom Meyer (“Real Steel”), editors Mike Sale (“Red Notice,” “Skyscraper”) and John Lee (“Anyone Home?”), costume designers Kurt and Bart (“Deadpool 2,” “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 & 2”), Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer (“Life of Pi,” “Wonder Woman”), and composer Lorne Balfe (“Black Widow”).

New Line Cinema Presents a Seven Bucks/Flynn Co. Production, A Jaume Collet-Serra Film, “Black Adam,” smashing into theaters and IMAX internationally beginning 19 October 2022, in North America on October 21, 2022. It will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.