The popularity of superhero movies continuing to grow has also provided more opportunities for actors to appear in multiple franchises within this genre. Just look at Idris Elba, who played Heimdall in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and has since jumped to the DC Extended Universe to play Bloodsport in The Suicide Squad. That brings us to Dwayne Johnson, who will soon be contributing to the DCEU too as Black Adam. But is it possible we could also see The Rock appear in the MCU someday? According to a new update, it’s unlikely.
This subject was broached during an interview between Collider and producer Hiram Garcia, who co-founded Seven Bucks Productions with Dwayne Johnson. When Garcia was asked if Johnson had ever been contacted by Marvel about any possibilities of working over there, Garcia responded:
DJ and Kevin [Feige] have a great relationship and we've flirted around a few ideas before, but nothing serious. There’s a mutual admiration for what we each have been doing and what Kevin has built over there is truly incredible. Ultimately though for us, we’ve always been very committed to what we wanted to build with Black Adam. Black Adam was the character we wanted to bring to life and who we felt DJ was destined to play. Once we set our sites on this character over a decade ago it was hard to imagine DJ playing anyone else.
So when it comes to the realm of superhero movies, Dwayne Johnson is comfortable sticking only with Black Adam, a character he has been attached to play in one form or another for literally over a decade. And while Black Adam 2 hasn’t been officially greenlit yet, producer Dany Garcia said back in June that there’s interest in doing “many” Black Adam movies. Between leading a potential new DCEU-set franchise and the other projects he already has in the works, it makes sense that even though he has a good rapport going with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, he’s not interested in joining the MCU.
Dwayne Johnson was confirmed in late 2014 to play Black Adam in the DCEU, and the original plan was for the Kahndaqian powerhouse to serve as the first Shazam! movie’s main antagonist. But by the beginning of 2017, it was decided that Black Adam should debut in his own movie instead, and Thaddeus Sivana was used as Shazam!’s villain instead. Now Black Adam is being lined up to be just as important player in the DCEU as Zachary Levi’s Shazam, if not more so. And while it remains to be seen when these cinematic characters will eventually fight like their comic book counterparts have done so often, it’s clear Johnson is on the proverbial Black Adam train for the long haul.
Of course, it’s not like the MCU has any trouble recruiting star power nowadays, and with movies like Fantastic Four and X-Men reboots on the way, not to mention the various Disney+ shows in development for the franchise, there are plenty of A-list slots to be filled in the coming years. As for next year’s Black Adam, along with showing how the man once known as Teth-Adam gained his amazing powers in the days of ancient Kahndaq, the present day narrative will see the main character battling the Justice Society of America, which consists of Hawkman, Atom Smasher, Cyclone and Doctor Fate. Jaume Collet-Serra, who worked with Dwayne Johnson on the recently-released Jungle Cruise, directed the feature.
Black Adam will open in theaters on July 29, 2022, three weeks after the MCU movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever arrives. Learn what else these superhero franchise has coming up with our Marvel movies guide and DC movies guide.
