A new Black Adam poster teases a new hierarchy coming to life in the DCEU as Dwayne Johnson brings the iconic Shazam villain to the big screen. One of the longest-developed DCEU films is finally hitting theaters next month after years of development. Back when the DCEU was still taking shape, Johnson was cast as the DC icon, Black Adam, who is best known as Shazam's archrival. The original plan was to have Black Adam appear in the Shazam! movie until Johnson convinced Warner Bros. to give the character his own film instead of cramming him into Billy Batson's DCEU debut.
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Black Adam will explore Teth-Adam's tragic and grim origin story as a Kahndaq slave who fights for his home after acquiring the same powers as Shazam. While the two icons will eventually clash, the DCEU is going in a new direction with Black Adam by depicting Johnson's character as an anti-hero rather than a traditional supervillain. Even though Black Adam will go after villains such as Sabbac and Intergang, the morally gray hero will also deal with the Golden Age team known as the Justice Society of America.
After several delays, Black Adam is opening in theaters next month, with Johnson's movie being the only DCEU product for 2022. While Warner Bros. has already released the final Black Adam trailer, Johnson shared a new poster on Twitter to help hype up the movie. The poster sees Johnson's DC player on a throne, with the caption, "The time of heroes is over," echoing the actor's previous promise how "the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is about to change." Check out the full poster below.
Whether or not it was intentional, the poster is almost identical to the cover of 52 #45, featuring Black Adam sitting on a similar throne. 52 was a weekly comic series that came out in 2006, following the events between Infinite Crisis and One Year Later. In that particular issue, Black Adam deals with the death of Iris, a.k.a. Adrianna Tomaz, who will also appear in the DCEU film. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if the Black Adam poster is meant to be a direct tribute to 52 #45, which Warner Bros. does with many DC live-action films and TV shows.
It's been made abundantly clear that Black Adam will be a game-changer for the DCEU's future, although it remains to be seen how the film will shake up the interconnected universe. While Warner Bros. Discovery is determined to elevate the DC brand, it's unclear how Black Adam fits into their plans. However, should Black Adam be successful, Johnson has stressed that this is the beginning of a larger franchise, which includes ideas for DCEU spinoff projects with characters in the movie. As Black Adam is getting ready to open in theaters, it will be exciting to see the result of what has been a long journey for Johnson and this particular project.