The Rock's Black Adam Was Featured In Shazam At One Point

Last month it was rumored that Shazam would be the next DC movie to start production. This has now been confirmed by director David F. Sandberg, who has also explained why Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson won't appear in the movie.

Johnson was previously announced in the role of Shazam's nemesis Black Adam who is set to appear in his own spinoff movie. However, in a new interview with Film Riot, Sandberg said, "[Although] The Rock has been cast as Black Adam, he's not going to be featured in this film. There have been variations of the script, before I came along, where Black Adam was in and out. But now, this is about Shazam."

Sandberg also spoke about the research he is doing into the character, and explained that he was going all the way back to Shazam's earliest comics. "I'm taking it all in," he said. "Some of those really old ones are quite fun, when he's, like, fighting Hitler. Stuff like that. So there's a lot to read. It's also interesting because he sort of has a couple of different origin stories, and a couple of different takes on it. You have the most recent sort of Geoff Johns version, and then you have Ordwell version, and then you have those really old versions.

"It's going to be interesting, just because how hardcore the fans are. Already, if I tweet a little something, suddenly there's blog post, and no matter what you do, some people will be disappointed."

Although Shazam will be the next DC movie to start shooting, the studio has plenty more films in the pipeline. A full slate of upcoming titles was announced at San Diego Comic-Con last month, including Wonder Woman 2, The Batman, Justice League Dark, Suicide Squad 2, Green Lantern Corps, Batgirl, and the Flash movie, which is now titled Flashpoint.

Shazam first appeared in 1939, when he was known by the name Captain Marvel. The character was bought by DC in 1971, when he was renamed, due to Marvel's ownership of the name Captain Marvel. A live action Shazam TV show was broadcast in the mid-70s, while an animated show followed in 1981.