Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been teasing—and teasing, and teasing—his Black Adam movie for years. And now there’s finally a trailer for it! A trailer that is a Cliff’s Notes version of the character’s origin story but otherwise gives little sense of what Black Adam is about. Other than how its character is indestructible, anyway.
The short version of Black Adam’s backstory, per the trailer, is that he was a slave and then he was reborn “a god.” This seems like maybe a bit of egotistical exaggeration, but he can certainly fly, and not get hurt, and catch rockets with his bare and massive hands. He’s not the only superhero in town; the movie also fits in Justice Society of America members Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), and Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan). The JSA believes heroes don’t kill people. Black Adam has a slightly different take.
Black Adam is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Johnson’s Jungle Cruise director), who seems to be working with the Zack Snyder DC playbook: everything is brown. Collet-Serra told Entertainment Weekly, “When I started reading about Black Adam, I became really interested in how unconventional of a character he is. … Is he a hero? Is he a villain? Is he an antihero? He has such a unique story, and he goes well with my style and view of the world in general. In a world where not everything is black or white, you need a superhero like him to operate in the gray area, who has his own moral code.”
His moral code apparently involves flinging dudes into the sky—and making decisions about what kind of superpowered god-man he wants to be. Black Adam is in theaters October 21st.
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