Black Adam star Dwayne Johnson responds to a question about his DC Extended Universe anti-hero using his iconic wrestling move.
While promoting the film alongside the Black Adam cast on Fandango All Access, Johnson, best known as "The Rock" in World Wrestling Entertainment, was asked by host Naz Perez if he will do his signature "People's Eyebrow" in the DCEU film. The WWE legend teased that there's a good chance of it happening. "There might be. Slightly. Slightly," Johnson said.
Created by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck, Black Adam made his debut in Fawcett Comics' The Marvel Family #1 (December 1945). The character was originally conceived as the Egyptian archnemesis of Captain Marvel/Shazam. But over time, Black Adam evolved into an anti-hero wronged for crimes he did not commit. Johnson sees parallels between Adam and his former wrestling persona walking a fine line between hero and villain.
Wrestling Influenced Black Adam
"No doubt my experience as a pro wrestler where I would continuously straddle the line of good and bad and eventually it got to a place in that world of pro wrestling where it was just an accepted thing that when the character of The Rock comes out, he'll do things that might be questionable," Johnson explained. "But at the end of the day, everyone in the arena understood why. And that's how they left. So same thing. Very similar to Black Adam. You may not agree with his philosophy. But at the end, you do understand why."
Black Adam was a pet project for Johnson going back to 2007 when the wrestling icon expressed interest in the role for director Peter Segal's scrapped Shazam! movie. There were additional considerations for Johnson to appear as the DCEU anti-hero in the Suicide Squad sequel and 2019's Shazam! before deciding on making Black Adam a stand-alone film. As Johnson spent a decade dominating the box office and making occasional appearances on WWE programming, Black Adam producer Hiram Garcia explained that getting the script right was a top priority before Johnson could fully commit to the role.
"It's why we're always pushing and developing, because you really don't know what script is going to come back ready," Garcia said. "Maybe a script you get back is super off and is going to take a lot of work. Look, there's a reason why Black Adam, we had been developing over 10 years, right? It's like some things come fast, some things don't, but it's our job in this business to make sure we continue to keep all of them developing, and they'll hatch when they're ready. When they're ready, that's when we give it to the world and go."
Black Adam premieres in theaters on Oct. 21.
Source: YouTube