By Okon Essien

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has slowly been becoming one of the most relevant and bankable characters in Hollywood today. Usually when someone becomes a star in multiple action films, you can only assume that they’ll venture over to the world of comic books and eventually star in a superhero film, so when Johnson was cast in the role of Black Adam in 2019’s Shazam!, it wasn’t a big shocker.

What was interesting though, is that Johnson had the chance to play the titular character, but chose his very complex, very troubled arch-nemesis instead.”Well why would he go and do something like that?” Glad you asked, because we’ve got answers.

In a Q&A he hosted on his YouTube channel (start at 2:19), he explained his reasoning, and shared his excitement to his fans:

“I love the role of Black Adam. I love that he starts off as a slave, that he felt like he was wronged. I just love that backstory, and I think that Black Adam has always been, for me, the most intriguing superhero.”

While Black Adam is not exactly what some would call a “Superhero,” he’s definitely an intriguing anti-hero of sorts. His mentioning Black Adam being a slave makes us think that Warner Bros. is leaning towards his New 52 origin, in which he was a slave who received magical powers, and rescued the people of his home from their violent oppressors.

Regardless of that, we’re stoked to see that Johnson is passionate about the role. We just hope that Warner Bros. is able to develop a good story that highlights Black Adam’s backstory to it’s fullest.

Shazam! is scheduled to strikes the box office on April 5th, 2019.

Source: YouTube (via The Rock)

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