Black Adam first teaser brings The Rock into the DC Universe

black adam
(Image credit: DC Comics/Dwayne Johnson/Boss Logic)

DC has revealed a first look at the long-awaited Black Adam, starring Dwayne Johnson, at its FanDome 2021 event. It's a rather Tomb Raider-y preview of the movie, and shows Johnson's character – who's closely connected with Shazam in DC's comics – being unleashed for the first time.

Check out a first look at the scene below, as well as some behind-the-scenes insight from Pierce Brosnan (who plays Doctor Fate in the film) among other members of the cast:

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The Shallows director Jaume Collet-Serra is behind Black Adam. Filming finished back in July, with post-production now ongoing. Aldis Hodge (Hawkman) and Noah Centineo (Atom Smasher) are among the supporting cast, along with Sarah Shahi, last seen in Netflix's popular series Sex/Life.

"As you guys know, this character, this film, this universe, has been a gigantic passion project of mine for a very long time," Johnson says, explaining he's worked extremely hard on the movie in his passion to get it right. "It's the kind of project that I know comes along once in a lifetime." He then revealed that the film has started post-production – finally, the project is close to seeing the light of day.

Black Adam is expected to release on July 29, 2022. 

Villain turned hero?

Black Adam is a long-term project for Johnson, who's been associated with the film since at least 2014 – back when we were deep in the Zack Snyder generation of DC movies.

In some ways, Black Adam is an odd choice for a big-budget blockbuster, and not the most familiar character to non-comics fans. In the 2000s, however, the character rose to greater prominence, with memorable appearances in Geoff Johns' JSA books and key DC events – he's been depicted as a more complex villain than some of the DC's other bad guys, which might be what attracted Johnson to the role.

Either way, the actor's star power is bound to draw a lot of viewers to the new movie who have never heard of the character.

Samuel Roberts

Samuel is a PR Manager at game developer Frontier. Formerly TechRadar's Senior Entertainment Editor, he's an expert in Marvel, Star Wars, Netflix shows and general streaming stuff. Before his stint at TechRadar, he spent six years at PC Gamer. Samuel is also the co-host of the popular Back Page podcast, in which he details the trials and tribulations of being a games magazine editor – and attempts to justify his impulsive eBay games buying binges.