Dwayne Johnson has been talking about playing DC character Black Adam since before the film that was originally to have introduced him – Shazam! was even made. And as recently as last month, he's confirmed that the film should be shooting next summer. The Rock has taken things a step further, announcing a December 2021 release date and showing off some concept art featuring him as the character on his Instagram account.
Black Adam, for those who may not know is (in the comics at least) the dark twin of Shazam, a character who has traditionally been a villain, though in recent years has been looking to atone for past crimes, becoming more of an anti-hero. Johnson confirmed that he wanted to play the character in a Shazam film way back in 2014, but after a few years of development, the decision was made to split the characters' origin stories and get the Billy Batson/Shazam story told first. There are little hints of Adam's backstory in the movie that scored at the box office, especially in the fate of Shazam the wizard (Djimon Hounsou)'s fellow magic-users.
We can expect Adam to have a complicated relationship with his powers, then, though of course he'll find a way to bring his usual charisma to the role, even he touts this as a very different character. Jaume Collet-Serra (who recently worked with the star on Disney's Jungle Cruise) is on to direct and now we know to expect the movie in a couple of years.