Three years before Zachary Levi was tapped to headline Shazam!, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was cast as the movie’s villain, Black Adam, in 2014. The script went through several changes over the next few years until Black Adam was dropped from the film in favor of Mark Strong’s Dr. Sivana. Since Black Adam is considered Shazam’s archenemy, an onscreen battle seems inevitable. But while speaking to ComicBook.com, Levi and Shazam! director David F. Sandberg explained why it’s better to save him for a later installment.
“Early on before I came on board they had experimented with the possibility of doing a Shazam vs Black Adam movie but I think they felt that that was, you know, it was better to just focus on Shazam first and give him his proper space and not have to also do Black Adam,” said Sandberg. “So it was a way of, like, have Sivana take more space and that, actually let him have some powers to play around with. So he could be a formidable foe.”
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Levi also chimed in with his perspective and echoed Sandberg’s remarks.
“By the time I got the script, Black Adam was no longer a part of the initial Shazam! offering of this first film and I think that was a very intelligent decision made by everyone involved, including the Rock, who is still to this point attached to play Black Adam,” said Levi. “Because trying to do two origin stories that you’d really — and by the way, our movie does that a little bit.”
“You get some origin for Sivana but you’d have to spend a heck of a lot more explaining Black Adam and explaining Billy Batson and Shazam! and so its like how did we get all that without feeling like we’re diluting everything,” continued Levi. “So, the collective powers that be all were like ‘Hey, let’s just, we’ll break it up,’ so by the time I saw a script it was Shazam! and Sivana was the baddie.”
It was previously announced that Johnson’s Black Adam would also star in his own standalone movie at some point. However, there’s no indication when or if this will still happen.
Do you think Warner Bros. made the right decision by saving Black Adam for a Shazam! sequel or his own movie? Let us know in the comment section below!
