Details are finally made known about the Dwayne Johnson Shazam movie which sees the Rock starring as the villain/anti-hero Black Adam.
Johnson’s producing partner and manager, Dany Garcia, tells Newsweek that Shazam is set within the DC Justice League universe, and that Shazam won’t be featuring the same producers that worked on Batman Vs. Superman and Suicide Squad, which have been receiving the blame for those two movies’ poor performances.
“Shazam is to live in the same world [as the other films] but we have incredible autonomy over this brand and franchise,” Garcia said. “We are working with a different team, different producers, directors… it’s a different set-up. We don’t feel fettered by, or constrained by, the successes or failures and challenges of the other projects. That was a key component to our participation—that we be able to control the tone and the voice, and do it the way we want to.”
“It needs to be of the world,” Garcia continued. “You’ve got Justice League, Wonder Woman with a different director, so you’re going to see different points of view. I think by the time we land with [Shazam] we’ll fit nicely within the world that’s been created, but not such a shorthand relationship. [It’ll be] enough that people say, ‘Oh, this is within the family,’ but the culture will be a little different.”
Garcia also let it be known they are presently getting the Shazam script right as they want to made sure they get the tone right for Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam.
Regarding Shazam being set within the DC Justice League universe, Dwayne Johnson did call out Henry Cavill’s Superman on two occasions on social media. Johnson posted that Black Adam vs. Superman wouldn’t happen in the first movie, “but nothing would make me happier. [Superman has] it comin’.” Johnson also posted a pic of himself a while back wearing a Superman t-shirt teasing, “No capes.”
Shazam currently has an April 5, 2019 release; no director or other actors are attached as of yet.