After nearly a decade, Warner Bros.' Black Adam movie is finally happening. The DC Expanded Universe film spent years percolating in development hell, but it quickly began to come together when Jungle Cruise director Jaume Collet-Serra boarded the project in June 2019. Now, Black Adam has finally wrapped production -- and it's not the only DCEU film that Dwyane Johnson will star in next year. The wrestler-turned-actor will also lend his voice to Superman's dog Krypto in DC League of Super-Pets, in a radical departure from the deadly antihero he plays in Black Adam.
Speaking to CBR, Black Adam and DC League of Super-Pets producer Hiram Garcia offered a glimpse of superheroics to come in Johnson's DCEU projects. He explained what sets Black Adam apart from other antiheroes, as well as what the Justice Society of America brings to the film. He praised his partnership with DC and broke down some of the obstacles they faced on the road to developing the movie. He also teased Super-Pets' villain, how the animated film "takes advantage" of its medium, the director's cut of Black Adam and more.
CBR: I feel like, at least recently, Dwayne Johnson has been leaning more towards playing heroic type characters, but with Red Notice and Black Adam coming up, we're seeing a shift back to something more villainous. What appeals to you about exploring that darker, gray area again with him?
Hiram Garcia: I think, you know, when we can put him in situations where -- I think it's just like you said! I think people are very used to heroic versions of DJ, right? I mean, he's a heroic guy. He's just a natural leader. He's very charismatic. He's very positive, loves to give advice. He has all the elements of a hero. So anytime we can play against those types a bit and still deliver a lot of the things that fans like and still deliver something different is really appealing to us.
So the idea of him playing a character like Hartley, who is very complex and has multiple layers to him was really fun -- and look, especially him coming into the superhero universe as an antihero, basically being smack dab in the middle of the debate, which I've always loved, right? It's always one of the great superhero debates, and you hear so much, attached especially to Batman, the idea of what is a hero supposed to do? You know, the trope of a Batman and a Superman is, no matter what, you bring the villain to justice. You bring them and you make him have his day in court and he needs to be tried in a court of law.
The great debate is, as well: is that right? Should Batman let the Joker keep going to prison and breaking out and killing more people? How many of those deaths are on Batman's shoulders? So with Black Adam, you have a character who is the judge, jury and executioner. He very much feels that, if this is a bad person, I will eliminate them from this Earth and they will never be able to hurt anyone else again. He's on the other side, where he will take justice into his own hands, and that's not the typical hero trope.
Also, there's the danger of, if you cross him or you make him really mad, well, not only will he take out his vengeance, but there may be a lot of collateral damage in the process. So that was a very appealing character for us, and being in the middle and the opposite side of that debate, whereas the other typical heroes might have to adhere to more traditional trope of, "Well, we need to bring the bad guy to justice" and so forth.
But Black Adam doesn't believe in that. He believes in what he thinks is right and wrong, and once he's made the decision to carry it out, what he feels is just, there's really no one on the planet that we've found yet that can stop him. So I think that character is interesting. While he still has a moral compass, there's a brutality to his moral compass that is fun for us to play with and feels fresh at that scale of power.
There's antiheroes in the hero world, but we've never seen an antihero at that power scale, because a Homelander is more full villain, and Deadpool, obviously, and Logan are antiheroes, but they're not flying around and so forth and can move a planet. Black Adam is a very unique figure to be that powerful and be on that side of the debate. So very appealing... It's one of the reasons why we've always wanted to do Black Adam, for many years.
Black Adam isn't the only major DC character to debut in this film. When it came to assembling the Justice Society of America, what were you looking for in these characters and, in turn, the actors that play them?
I think we were looking for people that were able to tap into any of the elements we love about these characters. Look, obviously, Dr. Fate, Hawkman, Atom Smasher, Quintessa [Swindell], they're beloved, especially when you look at a Hawkman and Dr. Fate. These are some of the most favorite characters that fans have when it comes to the DC Universe.
So knowing our templates of how we saw the characters, we were looking for actors that could deliver on a wisdom and a poise that came with Hawkman and Dr. Fate, of elder statesmen that you'd have of the group. These are heroes that their characters have been around for a very long time. There's a mythology that is thousands of years old with them and knowledge and wisdom within those characters. So we were looking for actors who could bring that to the table, really display that, also set that tone and leadership...
Then, when it came to Atom Smasher and Cyclone, we wanted people that not only had complex backstories -- because both of them have very interesting, complex backstories in terms of how they're able to do what they do -- but also brought a youth and exuberance to being a hero, kind of a mishmash of characters coming together in a fun way, where you had some OGs and you had some New Gs, if you want, to the group.
So we were able to find a really good group of actors. All of them absolutely crushed it. I think the dynamic between all them is a lot of fun. And anytime you have James Bond coming in now as Dr. Fate! Pierce [Brosnan] is so poised and so charming, and the minute he comes on set, he just elevates everything, mixed with all the other actors.
Aldis [Hodge] is so amazing as Hawkman and just brings a weight and an energy to this character that, if you're a fan of Hawkman, you know his history, that [he] has lived many lifetimes, to [bring] a real nuance to the way Aldis plays him that, ultimately is really intriguing, but also, he's a tough dude. The way him and Black Adam go at each other is going to be a lot of fun for fans to see.
So all of them knocked it out of the park. Hands down, once we saw them read, we knew right away these are the guys with the roles, and we're really happy with it.
Black Adam is one of the darker characters in the DCEU, while Krypto is one of the purest superheroes of all. What's it like to straddle telling stories with both types of characters? Is it tough to switch from one to the other?
You know what? It's so much fun! At our core, we're just fans and we're comic book fans, and so to be able to tell all these different stories, and modulate between the different tones, that's what's appealing. You almost don't want to always just tell the same tone. It's fun to be able to one day be working on Black Adam, picking up someone and electrocuting them till it's just their skeleton and then crushing the skeleton, to Krypto doing crazy things as Superman's dog in this charming story of Superman's best friend, who is, again, all goodness and vibrance and purity and the love wrapped up into a dog that also happens to be the most powerful animal in the entire universe. So that's really fun.
For us as storytellers, to be able to kind of modulate between those two, and DJ does such a good job between when you really do think -- I mean, you called it out -- from him going through the way he plays Black Adam to the way he plays Krypto, is so much fun to see him shift in and out of the characters.
I think you're gonna have a lot of fun with Super-Pets. It's such a charming story. That group of actors are all so talented. Anytime you get DJ and Kevin [Hart] doing what they do, you know you're in for a really fun ride. So we're really excited about it. It's really charming. It's one of those movies that I think the whole family is going to be able to enjoy. Kids are going to really love it, but there's a lot of humor in there for adults and especially fans of superhero movies, that I think everyone's gonna walk away having a really good time having seen it.
Tell me a little about your collaboration with DC. How hands-on were they? Did DC or Warner Bros. ever pump the brakes on something you or Dwyane wanted to do with Black Adam?
Oh, yeah, DC is very hands on. When you're making a movie over there, and you're playing in their sandbox, they have a very clear-cut vision of what they're doing over there and what they want to be able to do with all their properties. So you're in constant communication with them. They're always very hands-on.
They're a great resource for you as you're kind of figuring out, "Alright, well, what are the characters we want to do here, and who do we want to put here?" And a lot of times, maybe your first swing at a character, you might not be able to use, so they're a great resource to be like, "Well, look, we can't allow you guys to use this one, but here's another one that might be a good option." So they're just good partners.
Ultimately, they're creating a vision over there for the entire DC Universe, of what they want to happen. So they're really useful, as filmmakers, to be in very close contact with them so you know, "Alright, what are my boundaries? Where can I play? What can I push? Where can I push? How am I going to fit into a bigger world over there?" But from the beginning, they've been greatly involved and really helped make the movies that much better with all the insight they've been able to put in.
What can you do with characters like the Super Pets, that you couldn't with, say, a human character? What has the nature of animation allowed you to do within the DC Universe that you couldn't with live-action?
That's the fun of animation, right, is you can go crazy! You can go crazy with some of the stuff we're doing. We have a really fun villain in our Super-Pets movie that fully takes advantage of the flexibility that comes with animation. Look, if this was a live-action movie, it would be a very expensive live-action movie, because it's a big movie! [laughs] I mean, there's a lot going on.
The set pieces are awesome in Super-Pets. Our characters go through a lot of crazy things. There's just a flexibility with animation that means, basically, you can do whatever you want. There are no limits in terms of your imagination, and how far you can take it. Along with that, there's also just a joy that comes with when you know you're making something that is just a little bit more kid-friendly.
Black Adam is edgy, right? That's gonna be a PG-13 movie where it was very much like, say, The Dark Knight, where that pushed the edges of PG-13. I think we do that very much with Black Adam. We have a very high kill count in our movie. [laughs]
Super-Pets, you're not dealing with that, right? Super-Pets is a different tone, where it's just fun. There's a lot of wish fulfillment. It's a lot of laughs. Ultimately, it's a really fun ride that gives you a perspective into the superhero world, especially when you're dealing with the Justice League, through the eyes of these pets, that are awesome.
Ultimately, I think so much of the world can relate to the love, the connection someone has with their pet. We really are able to tap into that when you consider that Krypto is Superman's best friend, and really, Krypto is the only other person on this planet that is from Krypton, like Superman. So there's a special bond that goes even deeper between the two that we really have fun playing with.
Was there ever a point in development when you or Dwayne thought Black Adam wasn't going to happen? What was the biggest surprise you encountered on that journey from page to screen?
Oh, yeah! Look, there were times where we had people involved that just were making it super difficult. [laughs] Very honestly! There were just parties involved that it was making for an extremely challenging creative process and that just didn't get what our vision was and we wanted to do.
But over time, things kind of cleaned up, and we were able to tighten up the team. We were able to find the right group of filmmakers and partners, where we really started to break through. Now, the group that we have is so good. Once we got Jaume [Collet-Serra] on board to be our director, things really clicked in.
They really clicked in, because Jaume understood the movie we wanted to make. I'll never forget having a lunch with him while we were filming Jungle Cruise, pitching him Black Adam, and he just got it right away. He was like, "Oh, I'm in 100%." He knew what the movie was and what we wanted the movie to be. So that was a moment where we had a really nice breakthrough, but it was a grind up into it. It was a very tough process to get it.
It's the reason why the movie took so long to get right and the different iterations. We had big breakthrough moments. I think once we realized, "You know what? We should separate Adam and Shazam, as opposed to trying to meet them both in one movie and have two origin stories in a movie. Let's separate and let's launch Shazam. Let him have his own movie, build that world out, and that tone wants to be very different. Let's meet Black Adam on his own and introduce that character in a very tonally different movie that's much more apropos to what Black Adam is."
So things like that were big breakthroughs as we continued to evolve. Ultimately, we got to a great place, where now we have the right group of filmmakers. We have the right execs on board. We're all in lockstep, very proud of the movie we're making. From what we've seen from early cuts, we're really excited about where this movie is going, and I think the fans will be too.
When is the full Super-Pets trailer hitting? For that matter, when will we get the first Black Adam trailer?!
It's funny. A Super-Pets trailer is coming soon. That one is coming soon. So before the end of the year, for sure.
When it comes to Black Adam, I can't give a date yet. I don't want to I don't want to commit any numbers, but we're working on it. When we do drop that trailer, it's going to be really good. We're hard at work.
We just saw the director's cut, so we're deep into it. There's a ton of effects in that movie that are being done. So you can imagine the visual effects pipeline is really jammed up right now as we're turning over shots and getting things ready. But when that trailer drops, it's gonna be really good.
Red Notice is now available on Netflix, while DC League of Super-Pets bows on May 20, 2022 and Black Adam arrives in theaters July 29, 2022.