Dwayne Johnson dishes a bit about Black Adam

While Marvel Studios is making news of fairly unprecedented proportions, its most likely challenger for king of the Superhero Movie mountain, Warner Bros, has been quiet in recent weeks.

Sure, we know that after a three year long absence from the big screen, the studio will be rolling out their two big universe establishing properties in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad in 2016, but what can we expect after that? Other than titles, a few stars, and a director; details are relatively slim.

Dwayne Johnson, star of Shazam! (one of the later films of the DC Comics-based slate), was able to shed a little light on his character, Black Adam, in a recent interview with Total Film (via GamesRadar):

I think Black Adam is going to grow into becoming an anti-hero…It’s all written within the spirit of respecting and paying homage to the comics. As we know, Black Adam started out as a slave. When he’s given the powers, he utilized them. Then in the wake of his powers, tragedy strikes, which turns his sentiment and tone in terms of psychology.

Not surprisingly, it sounds as though scriptwriter Darren Lemke (Jack the Giant Slayer) is taking some cues from the popular Geoff Johns version of the character.

But what about the actual in-universe continuity between Shazam! and the rest of the DC films? There had been some concern that, since New Line was co-producing, Billy Batson’s first big screen adventure in over 70 years might not even take place in the same universe as Zack Snyder‘s Justice League. Johnson addressed this as well:

It was all agreed that the worlds are all interconnected… One day you will see Black Adam go at it with Superman or Batman or any of the DC characters. But that said, there’s a great independence to Black Adam from the DC world, allowing us to inject, not only viciousness, but also winking humour.

Shazam! is scheduled to open on April 5, 2019.