Last night, Marvel and DC stars took home a ton of People’s Choice Awards, including awards for Tom Hiddleston, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and the DC/Vertigo adaptation Lucifer. Along the way, Johnson and Hiddleston crossed paths and — as you might expect from those two — the moment was so wholesome and charming that images instantly made their way across social media. At the event, Johnson accepted “The People’s Champion” Award, presented to him by Jeff Bezos, and while accepting his award, Johnson invited a Make-A-Wish recipient onstage as a surprise and gifted her his trophy. Hiddleston accepted the award for “The Male TV Star of 2021,” while the crowd chanted “Loki!”
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Both Hiddleston and Johnson stand out as the kind of actor who everyone seems to love, and where their costars regularly vouch for them being just as great in person. So it’s probably no surprise that in the photo below, provided by NBCUniversal (who aired the award show) they both seem genuinely giddy to cross paths.
You can see a photo below.
The two are both humanizing supervillains, albeit in different cinematic universes. Hiddleston stars as Loki, a role he originated in 2010’s Thor, while Johnson plays Black Adam in a forthcoming movie based on the character.
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. A second season of Loki is expected in 2022 as well.
