It’s short, it’s definitely not sweet (but also pretty dang sweet), and it’s got Dwayne Johnson flash-frying an armed aggressor down to the bone. This is your first real look at Black Adam.
Fans got their first glimpse of the July 2022 movie in a DC FanDome appearance on Saturday. It’s still pretty early for this one, so we didn’t get a trailer. Instead. Johnson took to the livestream’s virtual stage to set up a very brief clip from early in the film where his titular character demonstrates his powers for the first time.
Soon after, the Black Adam star shared the video on his Twitter feed.
The clip comes at the end of the video. The rest introduces the cast, which features a former James Bond in Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate, Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher. Hodge describes Johnson’s Black Adam as “brutal, uncompromising, [and] fueled by the depths of his pain.”
In the comics, Black Adam is villain and anti-hero both, depending on the story being told. He’s an ancient Egyptian prince who received his powers from the same Wizard that gave Billy Batson his alter ego identity of Shazam.
The 2022 movie introduces a DC Extended Universe take on the character, reportedly setting up Johnson’s Black Adam up as the arch-enemy of Zachary Levi’s Shazam. (It’s not known if Levi appears in this movie, however.) It’s likely, but not confirmed, that Shazam and Black Adam will duke it out in the 2023 Shazam sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods.