Black Adam star Dwayne Johnson admitted in a new interview he was aiming to be even more muscular than the version of the titular antihero depicted in comics while training for the upcoming DC Extended Universe film adaptation.
"The training we did for this movie was the most arduous I've ever done in my life," the actor told Men's Journal. "I promise you this: The hierarchy of power in the DC universe is about to change."
Johnson further explained that he was born to play the role of Black Adam, and admitted he more or less "...started training for Black Adam when [he] came out of the womb."
"But in all honesty, this project has been with me for 10 ten years now. The process began when we started to stand the material up and really developed it into what it is present day," the entertainer continued. "Once the start date was agreed on by our Seven Bucks production company, the rest of my team, Warner Bros. Studio, and DC Comics, I started to build an exhaustive training program with my coach Dave Rienzi. I wanted to come into this in the best shape of my career."
Johnson's latest comments about getting in shape for the DCEU project echo sentiments he shared back in December 2020, when he first teased the film's start date and shared a photo of himself working out on Instagram. "Training for BLACK ADAM. The hierarchy of power in the DC UNIVERSE is about to change," he captioned the image. "Shout to my long-time strength and conditioning coach [Dave Rienzi] for the ever-evolving, strategic road map to success for this film and character. Month by month, week by week, day by day. 277 lbs of mean and nasty."
While few details about Black Adam's plot have been revealed, it was previously confirmed the film will also star Pierce Brosnan as Justice Society hero Doctor Fate, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Aldis Hodge as Hawkman and Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone.
Black Adam producer Hiram Garcia also recently teased the team behind the movie hopes to tell Black Adam's story across multiple films. "We have always had a vision of where we saw we wanted this to go. We've never viewed this as just a one-off movie," he said at the time. "There's always been a rough, kind of loose outline in our head on an imaginary whiteboard of how we'd want to do it."
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Black Adam will arrive in theaters on July 29.
Source: Men's Journal