The Black Adam movie, which is finally coming out, has been in development for quite a while, with Dwayne Johnson's plans to portray the character going back to 2009. In that time, Black Adam and the larger Shazam mythology have been heavily revamped and changed. The trailer for Black Adam reflects some of these changes, all the while making some of its own.

Black Adam seems to be hinting at an entirely new origin story, with very little of what's been shown reflecting any of the character's previous origin stories. This begs the question of how recent the production version of the script is, as it includes very little that the character's backstory is known for. Here's how Black Adam's origin seems to change in the film.

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Black Adam's Origins in the Comic Books

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Debuting in The Marvel Family #1, Black Adam's origins initially portrayed him as an ancient Egyptian who was deemed worthy of receiving the powers of the Egyptian pantheon and being the champion of the wizard Shazam. Calling himself Teth-Adam, the powerful hero's newfound abilities corrupted him, leading to violent, selfish actions. Unable to take the powers, Shazam banished his patron, now named Black Adam, to a distant star. Though it would take centuries to do so, Black Adam would eventually return to Earth to vex Shazam and his new champion, Captain Marvel.

The post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity would have the wizard trapping Black Adam's soul in a scarab, though this would be freed and reunited with its "body" by Theo Adam, who was a reincarnation of the Teth-Adam. Though he still became a corrupted individual, this Black Adam would have much more nuance. His fall from grace in the past (with his home country retconned into the fictional Kahndaq) was also explained as being due to the murder of his wife.

The New 52 heavily changed things, with the character's ancient name simply being Adam. His slave boy nephew Aman was chosen as the champion of Shazam, and he shared his power with Adam when the latter became gravely injured. Unfortunately, the influx of power made Adam hunger only for revenge, even killing his nephew to have all of Shazam's power. Given how much the DC Extended Universe Shazam! movie pulled from the New 52, this version of the story would logically be the one from which Black Adam would take the most. Instead, it seems to be an origin that's far different from anything before.

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The Black Adam Movie Is Apparently Changing the Character's Origin Story

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The first trailer for Black Adam has the title character state that he died and reawakened an immortal with vast power. This is nothing like any of the previous versions of Black Adam, including the New 52. His son also died in the past, having "sacrificed" himself in some way. This, too, is somewhat different, all the while somewhat incorporating different takes on Black Adam.

The death of his son could be analogous to his family's death in the post-Crisis origin, as well as the death of Amon in the New 52. Likewise, Black Adam seems to be surrounded by other individuals when he states that he was reborn as an immortal. This was an idea brought about during DC Rebirth, which restored the continuity of many characters in the DC Universe. The Shazam mythos remained largely unchanged during the New 52, except for Black Adam being revealed as a member of the Council of Immortals. Given that the New 52 began only a few years after a Black Adam movie was first entertained, some elements from this new, more generic origin could be from an older script.

This older script could've then been slightly updated with elements from newer origins, all the while keeping most of what the script originally had. Hopefully for DC fans, there's more to Black Adam's backstory than what the first trailer shows, though for right now, it seems that Black Adam's origins and motivation are quite different this time around.

To see just how much his backstory changes, Black Adam debuts in theaters on October 21.