Dwayne Johnson took to social media to offer a warm welcome to Black Adam’s new director Jaume Collet-Serra. Johnson has been attached to play the comic book supervillain for a number of years. Given his history as Billy Batson’s nemesis, many fans were expecting the character to at least make a cameo in Shazam!, but it wasn’t to be, however. The film instead focused on Mark Strong’s villain, Doctor Sivana, and setting up a future clash with a much quirkier foe: Mr. Mind. Shazam! also ultimately went on to include a vastly different cameo.

The character of Black Adam still received his due. When Thaddeus Sivana meets The Wizard (Djimon Hounsou) in the film’s opening, he is told a story of a previously chosen champion. According to The Wizard, that champion gave in to a desire for vengeance, and his subsequent actions were then responsible for the release of the Seven Deadly Sins - creatures that play a huge part in the film. Although the champion goes unnamed, the backstory shares a lot of similarities with Black Adam’s. As such, it could potentially serve as the basis for a prequel film. Production on the film took a huge leap forward yesterday when Collet-Serra was confirmed to be taking the helm.

Taking to Instagram, Johnson penned a warm welcome for Collet-Serra. The two have just recently finished working together on Disney’s Jungle Cruise, with Johnson just recently wrapping on reshoots. The experience was clearly a positive one, with Johnson’s post praising Collet-Serra on his “passion, work ethic, style, vision, tone, and quality.” The actor went on to raise a toast of double tequila to the director and seems more excited than ever to bring Black Adam to life. Check out the full post below:

Johnson describing Black Adam as an “anti-hero” lends credence to the theory that he’ll be a more sympathetic figure when he makes his first appearance. It remains to be seen just how faithfully the film will match the source material. His particular origins, however, certainly lend themselves to being the hero of the story before descending into outright villainy. As one of the biggest stars in Hollywood right now, Johnson has a lot on his schedule. As well as the aforementioned Jungle Cruise, fans can also see the former wrestler in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw and Jumanji 3; and Johnson previously announced that Black Adam will begin filming next year.

As for Collet-Serra, it’s easy to see why the actor has so much faith in him. Ranging from such horror films as Orphan to tense action-thrillers like The Commuter and The Shallows, the director has built an eclectic body of work over the years. And now with such family-friendly fare as Jungle Cruise, Collet-Serra clearly has a passion that transcends genre. Each of his previous outings will no doubt lend themselves to imbuing the highly-anticipated superhero film with a range of different elements, similar to what David F. Sandberg was able to inject into Shazam! And with a pre-existing, seemingly trusting relationship between Johnson and Collet-Serra, that can only mean the director will bring out the best out of his star in acting as much as he does in social media posts.

More: Shazam 2 Can Make Black Adam a HERO, Not a Villain

Source: Dwayne Johnson

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