A lot of speculation and rumor has swirled about whether or not Dwayne Johnson’s ‘Black Adam‘ character would first appear in Zachary Levi’s ‘Shazam!’ movie before going on to the solo ‘Black Adam’ movie, even as a cameo. The original plan was for Johnson to have a major role in ‘Shazam!’ as Black Adam is Shazaam’s nemesis in the comics and it would make sense to have him in that film. Plus it would help connect the universe and set up Black Adam for that stand-alone film. But, the folks in charge of the DCEU have never quite seen it that way, a fact confirmed once again recently.
According to Johnson while speaking to SYFY Wire while out promoting ‘Skyscraper’, when asked about whether he could make an appearance in ‘Shazaam!’, Johnson said:
“I’m not in that one. It’s Shazam and Black Adam and, with the way the DC universe works, we should — in theory — meet up on the big screen. But who knows.”
While true that Johnson could be lying to keep the surprise intact in case Black Adam does show up in the film, even in just a post-credits scene. This story has been going on for quite some time, and it just really seems like the studio does not want Black Adam in ‘Shazaam!,’ which does go along with the recent announcement by Warner Bros/ DC that they want the films of the DCEU to stand alone for the foreseeable future without crossovers (due to the failures of ‘Batman V Superman’ and ‘Justice League’ most likely). It would help explain why they probably want ‘Black Adam’ and ‘Shazam!’ to stand on their own before making any plans to mix the two franchise, even if they are so intricately connected in their comic book origins.
What are your thoughts here? Is it a missed opportunity? Is it foolish for the studio to blame the mixing of characters for the failure of those films when it was actually poor planning and faith in bad directors that resulted in those films? Feel free to share your opinions below!
