Black Adam and Shazam Movie Separation Explained

Today was a big day for fans of Black Adam. The first trailer for the film dropped and it’s generating plenty of buzz on social media. However, there is still a big question in terms of why he’s getting his own solo movie–and whether he’ll clash with ‘Earth’s Mightiest Mortal’ soon enough. As many comic fans know, Black Adam is meant to be the “antithesis” of Shazam. One is a champion pure of heart and fighting for all, and the other is a ruthless seeker of his own form of justice.

The two’s stories are intrinsically linked, and yet, Shazam got his movie back in 2019. Now, Dwayne The Rock Johnson himself revealed how things changed behind the scenes:

“The original plan, maybe five or six years ago I think, was to tell the two origin stories of Shazam! and Black Adam in the same movie. That’s what we had worked on,” Johnson said. “The script was delivered. When we all read the script, I immediately felt like, ‘We have to separate these two movies. We have to honor Shazam! and that origin story and what that is and what that can be for the fans and then we also have to tell our story, too, as well.’ I think in separating them, with the majority of the world not knowing who Black Adam if you weren’t a serious comic book fan, it was important I think to separate them and tell each story respectively.”

While this may not have worked out for others, it did work here. The first Shazam movie was a hit, and they did tease Black Adam in it. Many are hoping (and The Rock is teasing) that a clash between these two could come. It’s just that Adam’s story needed to be told as well, and on October 21st, we’ll get just that.

Source: ComicBook.com