Black Adam: Multiple New Looks At The Rock In Costume Revealed

Total Film magazine features a cover story on Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam in the latest issue, and the magazine hvae taken to social media to share an advance look at some of the photos included within. While they don’t have any shots of the Justice Society, there are a number of different looks at Johnson in his wardrobe as Black Adam, the dark reflection of Zachary Levi’s Shazam. In two of the images, Adam is wearing a dark, ragged cloak not unlike the one the old Wizard in Shazam! wore, while a third image seems likely to be during a big battle scene. He is in his antihero outfit, with no cloak, and a bluish color that likely is the lighting used for Black Adam’s lightning effects.

In the comics, Black Adam is a supervillain, and Shazam’s greatest foe. In the movies, he’s being reframed as an antihero, and his connection to Shazam seems a bit tenuous. Black Adam was only briefly referenced in the first Shazam! movie.

You can see Total Film‘s tweet below.

View on X

Few specifics are known about Black Adam, with Johnson opting for pithy teasers like saying that the “balance of power in the DC Universe is about to change,” or that “history is in the making” with the film’s production. The star admits he would like to do more Black Adam films, so while this one seems pretty stand-alone it’s possible his world could get more interconnected with the rest of DC’s heroes and villains.

In the comics, Black Adam is Teth-Adam, an Egyptian slave who was granted the powers of the wizard Shazam. He used the powers to exact bloody revenge on not just his masters, but various others who he thought deserved it, and the wizard ultimately locked him away for centuries for abusing the power of Shazam. In Shazam!, there is a brief reference to the event when the wizard says, simply, that he once had a champion who misused his powers. Adam wasn’t named, and there was no follow-up as to exactly what he did or how he stopped being the wizard’s champion. 

In a teaser for the new movie, it appears archaeologists, along with a military or mercenary backup team, arrive at a temple not unlike the Rock of Eternity in Shazam!. When they uncover an inscription and say an incantation that includes the name of Shazam, Adam arrives and swiftly dispatches some of the soldiers who take aim at him.

Black Adam is set to be released on July 29, 2022.