Shazam! Footage Description Reveals Possible Black Adam Link

CBR

By Ian Cardona

Published Feb 12, 2019

Footage description of the first 20 minutes of Warner Bros. and DC's Shazam! may reveal a possible connection to comic book villain Black Adam.

Ever since 2014, it was confirmed that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson would portray the villainous Black Adam in Warner Bros.' so-called DC Extended Universe. At the time, it was expected that Johnson's supervillain would appear in Shazam!, but that ultimately didn't turn out to be the case. While it's said that Black Adam is being saved for his own solo film, Shazam! will instead see the titular superhero going up against Mark Strong's Doctor Sivana.

However, that doesn't mean that the Zachary Levi-starring film may not feature a nod to Shazam's biggest villain. Recently, Screen Rant got the chance to see the first 20 minutes of Shazam!, and the description of the footage definitely seems to indicate the film will feature at least a nod to Black Adam.

The nod comes in a scene we have seen many times in the movie's trailers, when young Billy Batson first finds himself in the Rock of Eternity -- and face-to-face with the Wizard. "The Wizard explains to Billy that he's the last wizard alive from the now destroyed Council of Eternity," Screen Rant describes. "He says that a long time ago they chose the wrong champion, who presumably led to their downfall. Rather than just tell the story, the Wizard permeates the room with magic, like a hologram, and shows the former champion over what appears to be Egypt."

As DC fans know, Black Adam was made the champion of the Council of Eternity, thousands of years ago, in Egypt. After turning on his masters, he would be banished, and would later return as an enemy of Shazam.

While there is no direct confirmation in the film, it's enough for fans to infer that the champion the Wizard speaks of is Black Adam. When later discussing the scene, director David F. Sandberg and producer Peter Safran would not offer any confirmation, but said "you can read it that way if you choose to."

Arriving on April 5, director David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! stars Asher Angel as Billy Batson, Zachary Levi as Shazam, Mark Strong as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, Djimon Hounsou as the ancient wizard Shazam, Grace Fulton as Mary Bromfield, Jack Dylan Grazer as Frederick “Freddy” Freeman, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña, Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, Cooper Andrews as Victor Vásquez and Marta Milans as Rosa Vásquez.