When Dwayne Johnson first joined the DC Extended Universe, the wrestler-turned-superstar signed on in the role of Shazam‘s sworn nemesis, Black Adam. He’s the twisted predecessor to DC’s Captain Marvel – not to be confused with Carol Danvers of Marvel – though once Johnson met with the Powers That Be over at Warner Bros., it wasn’t long before all involved settled on a spinoff movie centering on his hulking anti-hero.
That was three months ago and since then, the DCEU has carved out room for Nightwing and a Joss Whedon-directed Batgirl movie. But when MTV caught up with Dwayne Johnson in anticipation of The Fate of the Furious, the Rock turned in a status update on not only his Black Adam movie, but also the moment when he crosses paths with Shazam/Captain Marvel on the silver screen.
There have been rumblings that WB has pulled the plug on its Shazam film, which would open up a path for Black Adam to become the chief antagonist of Man of Steel 2. Still no sign of an update on that front just yet, but here, Johnson touches base on the thinking behind his standalone pic.
[What] we decided to do was to create a scenario where Black Adam has his stand-alone movie, and Captain Marvel, Shazam, has his stand-alone movie. We’re building our world that way, and then we can come together at some point.
Bouncing off that, the prolific actor then teased a “few surprises down the line” with Black Adam. Could one of those be a villainous role in Man of Steel 2?
We’ve had great discussions with Geoff Johns over at DC. This is a really fun, cool time for DC right now because they’re world-building. We’re seeing that with Wonder Woman and Aquaman. We have a few surprises down the line.
And though he’s naturally biased toward DC’s Black Adam movie, Johnson capped off the interview by claiming that the anti-hero film will be “f*cking awesome.” Without a director or release date to call its own, it’s far too soon to gauge the potential of Dwayne Johnson’s superhero spinoff, but one thing’s for sure: the actor will be an exciting addition to the DCEU, regardless of how big a role he plays.