Dwayne Johnson Movie Already Getting Spin-Offs
An upcoming film from Dwayne Johnson is already getting spin-offs, but is that because it's a guaranteed success or fear of failure?
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Dwayne Johnson is perhaps the most preeminent entertainer in the world, crossing over the divides of film, television, athletics, and annoying Vin Diesel. Although any and all of his films are pretty much guaranteed to be blockbusters, Johnson’s first foray into the world of comic book adaptations has real potential to become one of the biggest hits of the year. That foray is the upcoming DCEU film Black Adam, in which he will play the antiheroic title character, who once received the power of Shazam and apparently did some pretty bad stuff with it. Given that it is Dwayne Johnson, there probably will be some justifications revealed, but Warner Bros is so invested in the success of the film that it has enlisted its DC Comics arm to publish some spin-off one-shot comic books in order to give the film some back story.
The first one of the Dwayne Johnson-adjacent one-shots will be Black Adam – The Justice Society Files: Hawkman, by Cavan Scott, Scot Eaton and Norm Rapmund. In the upcoming Black Adam film, Hawkman is to be played by actor Aldis Hodge and is apparently the leader of the Justice Society that will oppose Dwayne Johnson when he emerges into modern times. The history of Hawkman is one of the thornier and more complicated ones in the tangled continuities of comic book lore (which is really saying something). In various incarnations, the character has been an exiled alien police officer, a reincarnated Egyptian prince, and an earthbound angel. It is actually probably a pretty good idea for DC to clarify which variant of the winged hero they will be introducing to fight Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam, given all the material available. Given Black Adam’s own backstory of being a former slave in ancient Kahndaq, it’s probably going to be some version of the reincarnation bit.
The other members of the Justice Society that will face off against Dwayne Johnson are Noah Centineo as Atom-Smasher, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, and a very handsomely bearded Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate. Each of them are to receive a backstory-laden DC Comics one-shot, which will be good catchup for audiences as to these relatively obscure characters. Black Adam is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who previously worked with Johnson on the hit Disney film Jungle Cruise, in which he played an immortal, reformed conquistador who teams up with Emily Blunt to fight some German people. It is kind of a weird premise to be based on an amusement park ride.
Black Adam is currently set to be released on October 21, 2022, but has already seen a number of production delays and reschedules (like many films during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic). Warner Bros is currently on an upswing with their DCEU franchise, with the massive success of Matt Reeves’ The Batman and the critical acclaim of HBO Max’s Peacemaker giving them much-needed ammo against Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. Dwayne Johnson is quite a catch for them for this new wave of films, and we will have to see how it works out for them.
