Being on the set of a superhero blockbuster can be like standing in the eye of a hurricane. There might be moments of calm where you are planted, but there’s probably whirlwinds of activity all around you, so policing what is going on has to be very chaotic. This is why directors have assistant directors, and producers have assistants that help to keep the ship afloat as production bounces along. And apparently on the set of the upcoming DC movie Black Adam, which stars Dwayne Johnson in the title role, there was an unspoken rule that one prop on the set – no matter how chaotic things got – could only be reserved for The Rock. And once you realize what it is, the rule makes complete and total sense.
There’s one very famous sketch of the DC villain Black Adam, that has only grown more popular as the character has been introduced to the world through this upcoming blockbuster. It shows Black Adam slumped in a throne, surveying his kingdom and likely choosing where to strike next. It looks like this:
Black Adam doesn’t completely recreate this moment, but there’s a spot in the movie where this frame is definitely paid homage. So when we had a moment to sit down and speak about the making of the movie with director Jaume Collet-Serra, I asked him about that day on set, and learned something very special about Black Adam’s throne. The director told CinemaBlend:
No one sat in that throne other than (Johnson). You know what I’m saying? The throne was made. We did scenes around the throne. No one ever sat on it. No crew members. There were no pictures taken. That throne is only for him.
This is part of what makes Dwayne Johnson special. Yes, people might have told The Rock that he needed to better emulate classic movie stars if he was going to get his shot in Hollywood. But the former pro wrestler just grinded it out and carved his own space, coming up with a DC comic book anti-hero that is poised to change the landscape of the DC universe moving forward… perhaps by fighting a very famous superhero from the DC Comics.
Back to the throne for a second. Elaborating on the moment that he captured that sequence, Black Adam director Jaume Collet-Serra also admired how The Rock knew the moment was going to be significant, explaining:
It’s not one take, but we didn’t do too many takes. It was just natural. He knows. It’s not something that we have to talk… Dwayne knows the comic, and knows the posture, he knows everything. So we just out the camera and he just did it, and it was just fantastic.
It worked. The critical response to Black Adam has been largely positive, though we’re not sure how the movie is tracking ahead of its release. We haven’t seen a comic-book movie in theaters for a few months, and we have weeks to go before Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in theaters. Keep up with the superhero blockbusters and all sorts of Upcoming 2022 Movies by bookmarking our guide and checking it often.
