Black Adam, Warner Bro's upcoming DCEU Shazam spin-off movie, has been given a new release date.
Hot off the heels of its Dr. Fate casting announcement, the Dwayne Johnson-starring film has received a new launch date after it was previously removed from Warner's upcoming release slate. Ahead of filming on the movie starting up next month, Warner and Johnson have announced that Black Adam will fly into theaters on July 9, 2022.
Johnson helped to make the announcement on his personal Instagram account. In a video, Johnson showed New York's Times Square being taken over by DC's anti-hero. The landmark's giant screens were all turned black for a few seconds, before Black Adam's iconic yellow lightning bolt appeared alongside the movie's title and release date.
You can check out Johnson's video below:
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Black Adam may not arrive on HBO Max
One interesting thing to note about Black Adam is that it may not be simultaneously released in theaters and on Warner's streaming platformer HBO Max.
In December 2020 (per Deadline), Warner announced that its entire 2021 movie slate would launch on HBO Max and in cinemas at the same time. This decision, Warner claimed, was down to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has decimated the global movie industry and resulted in the closure of worldwide theaters and cinema chains. Some nations, including the US, have begun to open their theaters to the public again, but not everyone will be comfortable sitting in a cinema with the pandemic still ongoing. As a result, Warner took the controversial decision to bring this year's releases to film fans via HBO Max as well.
With vaccine rollouts across the globe starting to have a positive impact on Covid-19 cases, however, it seems that Warner won't be extending its simultaneous HBO Max and cinema movie launches into 2022. On March 22, a Deadline report revealed that the studio had reached a deal with Regal Cinema and Cineworld, in the US and UK respectively, to have a 45-day window of theatrical exclusivity for next year's slate of movies.
While this isn't confirmation that Warner is dispensing with its HBO Max plans for 2022, it seems that the studio is gearing up for a return to its pre-Covid theatrical distribution-only plan. Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic could yet cause more movie misery, but Warner will hope that this doesn't end up being the case.
If Warner's plan remains in place, you'll have to travel to a cinema if you want to watch Johnson duke it out with the Justice Society of America in Black Adam.
Black Adam will star Johnson as the DC anti-hero, and he will be joined by the likes of Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Shahi and Quintessa Swindell in the DCEU flick.
