Dwayne Johnson on Whether Black Adam Is a DC Hero or Villain

After a years-long journey since its inception, Dwayne Johnson’s live-action Black Adam movie is finally making its way to the big screen. The film hits theaters in October of this year and allows the fan-favorite DC antihero to make his live-action debut. Black Adam has been portrayed as both a villain and a hero throughout his time in the pages of DC Comics, but Johnson’s take on the character won’t be going too far in either direction. 

On Tuesday, ComicBook.com attended the Warner Bros. presentation at CinemaCon 2022, where Johnson talked a bit about Black Adam. He revealed that the movie version of Black Adam will exist in a moral gray area, operating by his own rules.

“This is where we blur the lines a little bit with Black Adam,” Johnson explained. “Really, there’s black, there’s white, but then there’s a little bit of gray, and that idea that ‘superheroes don’t kill people.’ He said, ‘Well, I do.’ And there’s his own brand of justice. And that will go back to what we’ll call ‘the Dirty Harry philosophy’ that we wanted to capture.”

Johnson mentions Clint Eastwood’s classic film , which is surprisingly one of the biggest influences behind Black Adam. The creative team wanted to emulate the tone and moral ambiguity of the character.

“When I met with [director Jaume Collet-Serra probably about four or five years ago, he said, ‘Who is your favorite actor of all time?’ I said, ‘Clint Eastwood,’” Johnson continued. “He goes, ‘I’m glad you said that, because I see Black Adam as being the Dirty Harry of the superhero world.’ And [Dirty Harry] was in many ways our North Star. It truly has been a dream come true, and I can’t wait for you guys to see the movie. I think by the time Black Adam comes out in the fall at the end of October, if we do our job well – which we will do our job very well … I think the world is going to be ready for Black Adam. So I cannot wait.”

DC’s Black Adam movie is set to hit theaters on October 21st.