(Spoiler alert: Do not read on if you haven’t seen “Shazam!”)
If you’ve seen “Shazam!” you know that one famous villain to the titular character is not in the movie, although fans had been hoping to catch a glimpse of Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam. But director David F. Sandberg says there was a reason for the exclusion.
“That’s something [the studio was] looking at in the past because they wanted to do a ‘Shazam!’ movie for quite some time,” Sandberg told TheWrap’s Beatrice Verhoeven. “I think they felt that for a first movie, you need to focus on Shazam and give him the space that he needs to really introduce him to new audiences.”
But if Sandberg were to direct a sequel, would he want Black Adam to be included in that one? Black Adam is best known in DC Comics as the main nemesis of superhero Shazam.
“It feels like that’s sort of the natural thing to happen somewhere along the line just because he’s a classic villain to Shazam,” Sandberg said.
Like the titular superhero in the film, Black Adam was given his powers by a wizard named Shazam, but then became corrupted by them in ancient Egypt and overthrew a pharaoh. Unable to revoke his powers, Shazam banished Black Adam to the farthest star in the universe. Black Adam’s origin has changed over the years, though. He became more of an anti-hero trying to clear his name in more recent comic book arcs, so it’s not clear how the character would be presented on the big screen.
In 2014, Dwayne Johnson said he would be playing the supervillain — but it sounds like we still have some waiting to do on that one. Although, in 2017, it was reported that Black Adam might be introduced in the sequel to “Suicide Squad” — Johnson also hinted at it again last year. And just on Sunday, The Rock took to Instagram to say that they should start shooting a “Black Adam” movie in about a year.
One thing worth nothing though — Black Adam does show up for a split-second in “Shazam!” When the Wizard first summons Billy Batson to the Rock of Eternity, the Wizard tells the story that thousands of years ago, he had chosen a champion to be worthy of his powers, only for that champion to cause death and destruction. A golden hologram appears inside the Rock of Eternity as the Wizard tells the story, clearly showing the previous champion, Black Adam, who turned to the dark side and used his powers for evil, resulting in the Seven Deadly Sins being unleashed.
“Shazam!” stars Zachary Levi as the superhero, alongside Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer and Mark Strong.
Watch the video above.