Movies

New 'Black Adam' Concept Art Teased By Dwayne Johnson Before Big Reveals At DC FanDome

Black Adam release date
By Ethan Anderton

Today DC FanDome announced the huge roster of stars and creators who will be making an appearance at the upcoming virtual convention covering all things related to DC Comics. One of the biggest stars making an appearance will be Dwayne Johnson, who is slated to star in the upcoming DC movie Black Adam, a character who has ties to the Shazam! franchise led by Zachary Levi. And when Johnson tweeted about DC FanDome today, his teaser video featured something a little extra for fans.

Dwayne Johnson Reveals New Black Adam Concept Art

At first, the above video looks exactly like the one released by DC, including the list of all the names who will be virtually attending the online experience on August 22. However, there's a sudden bolt of lightning that slices through the list to reveal text that reads, "And the man in black," referring to Black Adam. After that, there's a split second of what appears to be a piece of motion concept art. Below is a snapshot of that brief slice that appears at the 11-second mark just before the DC FanDome logo.

New Black Adam Concept Art

That appears to be the hulking silhouette of Dwayne Johnson, and he's standing in some kind of ancient temple, though it doesn't look like the same one where the wizard Shazam bestowed his powers upon Billy Batson in the Shazam! movie. If someone told us this was just concept art for the next Jumanji movie, we might have believed them. Perhaps this is a different location where Black Adam gets the same magical powers, but that would differ from the character's comic book origins a bit.

In the pages of DC Comics, Black Adam comes into power after the wizard Shazam gives his powers to a different champion thousands of years before Billy Batson was chosen. An Egyptian named Teth-Adam (or Mighty Adam) was given these powers, but instead of becoming a true hero of humanity, his ideals and desires became corrupted by his power. Given the label of Black Adam, he was exiled by Shazam to the most distant star in the universe.

Black Adam flew back to Earth, but the trip took five thousand years, bringing him into the modern world where Billy Batson was the new champion along with his sister Mary Batson (Mary Marvel) and Freddy Freeman (Captain Marvel Jr.). They immediately became sworn enemies, and Black Adam would clash with may other DC Comics superheroes as a result, including Superman.

The concept art above would appear to be set in contemporary times, because that silhouette of Dwayne Johnson appears to be wearing a t-shirt and pants. So he's not in ancient Egypt. Maybe this is after Black Adam has returned to Earth? Or maybe he'll have a different origin story altogether. We'll likely find out more when DC FanDome arrives later this month.

Black Adam will be directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who just worked with Johnson on Disney's forthcoming theme park adaptation Jungle Cruise. Noah Centineo is also set to co-star in the movie as Albert Rothstein, AKA Atom Smasher, a hero who has the power to alter his molecular structure so he can manipulate his size and strength. Beau Flynn, Dany Garcia, and Hiram Garcia will all produce the movie, which was originally slated for release in December 2021, but will likely be pushed back due to coronavirus pandemic production delays.

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