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It probably feels like Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam ambitions have been around forever, and now that the dust has settled on that mess, people can finally move on. But before he failed to meet expectations in his solo DC movie, Johnson wasn’t as against meeting up with Shazam in the films, even going as far as naming a possible candidate to play the role. “I remember telling our producer, who I’ve worked with for a long time, Hiram Garcia,” Johnson recalled in an interview. “We both looked at each other and were like, ‘Possibly Shazam?’ I’m like yes. I’m not even gonna tell you his name, I’m just gonna say, Lone Ranger.” Johnson’s first choice to play his superhero nemesis was the star of the 2013 film, Armie Hammer. But the studio felt that Zachary Levi was the right choice. Hammer may have been a good option at one point, but his career has been hit with controversy, which would have just added to the DCEU’s smorgasbord of off-screen issues, some of which have involved the “Shazam/Black Adam” debacle.
While Johnson made it clear he believed it would have been “an incredible disservice” to just shove Black Adam’s origin story into his rival’s flick, according to The Warp, an insider claimed the actor has a thinly veiled disdain for “Shazam.” And his motivation to take on Henry Cavill’s Superman eclipsing any desire to fight Levi’s persona only arguably adds to the drama.
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While it’s unfortunate fans never got to see Johnson’s Black Adam take on Shazam in the DCEU, Zachary Levi has done a remarkable job bringing the character to the big screen, possibly opening up many different possibilities for the DC superhero down the road.
