The hierarchy of power in the DC Extended Universe is about to change: filming is underway on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson‘s Black Adam. In a late-night Instagram post on Thursday, the superstar actor and producer announced day one of production on the Shazam! spin-off from first-time DC director Jaume Collet-Serra (the Johnson-starring Jungle Cruise) and screenwriters Adam Sztykiel (Johnson’s Rampage) and Informer and The Mauritanian duo Rory Haines & Sohrab Noshirvani. Johnson, Dany Garcia, and Hiram Garcia of Seven Bucks Productions produce with Beau Flynn (Johnson’s San Andreas) for the New Line Cinema and DC Films production set for release in theaters on July 29, 2022.
“History in the making, extremely excited and what a humbling moment to share with you. Officially kicking off Day 1 of filming our Black Adam,” Johnson wrote in the Instagram post. Praising his “all-star production crew,” including Collet-Serra and Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Lawrence Sher (Joker), Johnson wrote the team behind Black Adam is “incredibly talented, galvanized, committed and focused to raise the bar and deliver something SPECIAL for the world. This one is an honor.”
Johnson has been attached to the Black Adam role since 2008. In a March video post on Instagram, Johnson said Teth-Adam’s decade-plus journey to the big screen is a passion project for himself and the Johnson co-founded Seven Bucks Productions.
“Black Adam has been with me for over ten years now. And that gives you an idea of how passionate I am with this project, how passionate our Seven Bucks is about this project,” Johnson said in a video addressing his 227 million Instagram followers. “Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, DC, they have been so incredibly supportive over the years. This has been over 10 years [in the making]. In 2008, we started talking about this, so it has required patience by all of us as partners, and I am a much different man and an actor than I was 10 years ago.”
Joining Johnson are fellow DCEU newcomers Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate, and Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, James Cusati-Moyer, and Bodhi Sabongui in undisclosed roles.
Earlier this week, Johnson said he was “Black Adam ready” when showing off his superhero physique on Instagram. But Black Adam is more anti-hero than superhero, as Johnson told ComicBook.com in 2019: “Black Adam, how he starts, he starts off as a villain. Then he becomes an anti-hero. And then he might become a hero or he might not.”
“There are many variations and iterations of Black Adam that we have all fallen in love with over the years, and what I can promise you is a Black Adam that I feel in my heart is the right one to root our story in the beginning, this origin story,” Johnson said when describing his character during DC FanDome over the summer. “This is a character that will possess all the qualities that we have loved, regardless of what variation of Black Adam you’ve loved.”
Describing Black Adam as a “ruthless keeper of justice,” Johnson added, “He is the judge, the jury, and the executioner, and he believes in an eye for an eye. He will always do everything he can to protect his people, more so protect his family.”
Black Adam is now filming in Atlanta, Georgia. Warner Bros. Pictures releases the film on July 29, 2022.