In the above Instagram post, The Rock...er...Dwayne Johnson thanks the cast and crew of the upcoming Black Adam movie on his last day of filming. We can see his monster physique is covered by a loose tunic that drapes about him like a tent off of those massive shoulders. In addition to his words being very gracious, generous, and thankful towards the crew, it also really sounds like this role is a very big deal for him.
He also posted the following text: Honored and proud to say that’s an official wrap on BLACK ADAM⚡️
I knew many years ago, the opportunity for me to make BLACK ADAM would be a ONCE IN A CAREER EVENT.
It has been my true honor to go shoulder to shoulder with over 1,000 brilliant and hungry crew of filmmakers and storytellers to bring the antihero known as, BLACK ADAM to life.
This has been one for the ages and easily the hardest labor and toughest grind mentally and physically of my entire career.
Worth. Every. Second.
Love you all. Thank you all. And I’ll see you down the road. Now go have some fun with that $10,000 🤣💰
The hierarchy of power in the DC UNIVERSE is changing.
I recall back in the mid 2000's when an MTV survey asked whether he should play Captain Marvel or Black Adam (rumors had him pegged as either one) he responded to the result (Black Adam) by saying that he would be interested in talking about it (or words to that effect). It was apparent that he was not so familiar with t he character.
Here is an article about the results of that poll.
Through the years that the project was in pre-production hell, however (repeatedly being delayed with directors and writers being hired and fired), he would talk about the character as being important, and meaningful. When Peter Segal and John August were tapped as director and writer, things were really looking up for the project, and when a comedy that they worked on featuring Johnson was released, some folks were trying to deconstruct it to see what it revealed abut how they would work together for the SHAZAM! movie.
Since then, Johnson had become such a big star that it was decided to give him his own stand-alone Black Adam movie. This makes sense, because Johnson's presence in the movie would distract from the lead characters, Billy Batson and his super-hero alter ego. Besides, with two movies instead of one, the DCCU will have more entries into the superhero film realm, and potentially more profits.
So I am interested and excited to see this movie. The cast of characters alone is fascinating (Hawkman, Dr. Fate, and Isis, particularly) showing that DC is not afraid to put lesser-known, even obscure superheroes in their movie, trusting that the overall popularity of superhero movies, and the specific quality of this movies will be strong enough to overcome the unfamiliarity of the characters.
But they have also cast some popular names in the movie as those characters (Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan, and Sarah Shahi), meaning that the actors believe in the project and the studio is willing to spend that kind of money on it.
It would be easy to say that everything about this movie is just being built around the star power of Dwayne Johnson, but why does he have such star power? Because enough of his recent movies have been entertaining, and he has been entertaining in them. He has proven himself to be likeable, with charisma to burn, and just good enough an actor to pull off most of the roles that he has been given. I saw him as very much an Errol Flynn type in "The Scorpion King," and that franchise has suffered without him. H did well as a villain type in his debut in "Star Trek: Voyager" and "The Mummy Returns," so we will see how he does as the "anti-hero" that DC has developed Black Adam into since his revival in Jerry Ordway's "The Power of SHAZAM!"
As a footnote, there are some interesting possible clues to the movie visible. We don't know for sure if that tunic Johnson is wearing is costume or is hiding/protecting his costume, but a couple of other actors are wearing what could be some kind of fantasy/sci-fi outfits that could be Kryptonian, for all I know. The background is a cyclorama of a cloudy sky with patches of bright white clouds popping up randomly. The actors have cables attached to their back, so this may have been a flying scene. Many of the crew are wearing Hawaiian shirts and leis. I don't know if that is because the scene is set in (or above)Hawai'i or if it was thee party theme of the day.
Here is a little video I shot that explains my point of view on the whole Shazam/Captain Marvel name thing, what the SHAZAM! movie costume reveals about it, and why I make a point of Saying "Captain Marvel" sometimes and "Shazam" other times...
What do you think about the SHAZAM! movie being about the New 52 character, as opposed to the classic Captain Marvel? Put your thoughts in the comments!
Brie Larsen tweeted this picture, announcing to the world that she is Captain Marvel.
At the beginning of June, Variety reported (and other websites like Entertainment Weekly picked up on it) that Oscar-winning actress Brie Larsen was "in talks" about playing Carol Danvers, AKA Marvel Comics' Captain Marvel.
Yesterday, at San Diego Comic Con, the official announcement was made. Here is a smattering of websites on which it was reported, as of right now (look at the time stamp on this post).
One fascinating, but not unexpected, thing about this list is the high-profile, female-targeted websites (Glamour, Vanity Fair, etc). This will be the first major company, female-led superhero movie ever. Other female superheroes like Wonder Woman have been on TV, female characters from smaller companies like Barb Wire have had their movies, and Halle Berry's Catwoman was technically a "villain," had a movie, but in this new wave of high-profile, mega-blockbuster, critically acclaimed superhero movies, no females have been the headliner. This is the first.
This has been such a big deal that the clickbait mill has been working overtime on the casiting. Names like Emily Blunt, Katherine Winnick, Katie Sackoff, Natalie Dormer, Rebecca Ferguson, Ronda Rousey, etc, have appeared in headlines designed to make it sound like it was "news" that someone thought they would be right for the role. Some, like Rousey, were vocal in campaigning for the role, but some of these women even embarrassingly had to admit that not only were they unfamiliar with the character, but had never been contacted by anyone about it!
Many of the articles have given capsulized descriptions of the character, but suppose the needs and resources of the medium have led them to leave out a few details. I think it is notable to mention that thought this Captain Marvel will be the first female lead of a Marvel movie, Carol Danvers is not the first female Captain Marvel.
The first female superhero named Captain Marvel was Marvel Comics' Monica Rambeau in 1982. She was also the first black Captain Marvel and one of the few black female superheroes. DC came next with Jerry Ordway's version of Mary Batson, who, in the "Power of Shazam" series in the 1990's, transformed into a female Captain Marvel. She was not known as "Mary Marvel" until after the series ended. At the beginning of the 2000's, Marvel came back with Phyla-Vell, the cloned sister from a newly-created replacement universe (don't ask) of the then-current Marvel Captain Marvel, Genis-Vell. She was Captain Marvel for a while.
Danvers herself has been Captain Marvel before, in the "House of M" storyline in which the Scarlet Witch had changed reality. That experience kicked of her new Ms. Marvel series, which built up her character until she took on the Mantle of Captain Marvel after the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline.
I am going to be open-mindedly optimistic about this casting decision. Marvel has not gone too terribly wrong yet in their Avengers-related movies (I am not thinking of any of the recent "Fantastic Four" movies), so there is no reason to expect them to have done so now.
On a related note, I would say that with every new news report and mention of Marvel's Captain Marvel movie, my confidence that DC's "Shazam" movie will include a character named "Captain Marvel" gets lower and lower. So far not a single use of the classic name has passed my eyes in anything from DC about the movie that has been announced to be released in 2019. This further makes me think that the hero of that movie will be based on the "New 52" superhero named Shazam. I can't help but think that such a movie would have an uphill battle with regards to being something that would be...well...good. I have nightmarish visions of overblown, confusing mash-ups of concepts, characters, and storylines from DC Comics mixed with things that would be completely made up for the movie.
I really hope that is not the case.
Videos regarding the Brie Larsen announcement:
These videos are all of the "announcement," which was actually a surprise addition to the Marvel movie panel at San Diego Comic Con. Pretty much all these videos seem to be from the video camera-phones of people in the audience.
...and a bit of pre-announcement clickbait video...
If
If you want to see more reports and reactions to the news that Brie Larsen was "in talks" back in June, go here, or just search for "Brie Larsen Captain Marvel"
So I have visited almost every web page with news about one or another Captain Marvel or "Shazam," and every YouTube video I could find about the same subjects. I was hard pressed to find a single one that did not have some factual error or two or ten in it, no matter how authoritative they presented themselves. Therefore, I decided to answer them all with this little video. I managed to cram19 different Captain Marvels into 24 minutes. There are one or two or three more, but these, I figure, are the main ones you should know about.
Well, after all that news about the potential appearance of a Marvel Comics Captain Marvel in the movies, the one owned by another comic book company hit the news today.
Apparently, Dwayne Johnson (AKA The rock AKA Rocky Malvia, pro wrestler with WWE and popular film star) said something that people are interpreting as a big, BIG hint that he will be playing Captain Marvel, or Shazam, depending on which name they decide to go with, in a movie coming out soon.
Some of these articles keep up the uncertainty of the announcement, while others just come straight out and say "This is it."
This would be big news. As we all may remember, years ago, when the first rumours surfaced about Johnson playing Captain Marvel, it was all wishful thinking. Then folks with more familiarity with the DC Universe suggested Black Adam, one of Captain Marvel's arch enemies, as a more appropriate character. Among the reasons, political correctness aside (and said with loads of Liberal Guilt), it's not usually a good move to change the race of an iconic character like Captain Marvel, and since Johnson has African ancestry and has played a Middle Eastern warrior before, casting him as Black Adam seemed like an awesome choice. This eventually led to a MTV on-line survey in which over 80% of the respondents said they would he should rather play Black Adam, and Johnson said he would be happy to discuss the possibility.
But now, whether they are being cautious or bold about it, everyone is jumping on the "The Rock is Captain Marvel/Shazam" bandwagon. I think we may want to slow down that bus. Lets look at this quotation from an earlier article at http://www.movieweb.com/news/dwayne-johnson-teases-his-dc-comics-character-compares-it-to-superman ...
"Well, here's the thing - so we've been having these ongoing
discussions. I won't tell you who it is, but I'll tell you the three
qualities we're looking for, okay? This is going to be fun! Here are
three qualities. The first quality we were looking for was that he had
to be extremely complex and have a lot going on. What that does for me
as an actor and the studio is it gives us space that we can explore; his
complexities. The other quality was that he had to - the character we
were looking for had to be well-known but never brought to life. Then
what that does again as an actor, it gives me a little bit of space, and
we talked about personality. It just gives me a chance to put an
imprint into his personality, with the set of tools that I could bring
to the table and put a very unique twist on his personality, but still
pay homage to who he is. The third thing - and most important - is he
had to be a badass motherfucker, okay, and on a Superman level of power,
where he could throw down. In those three qualities, I'm happy we've
found that character. Right now, we're out to a lot of writers."
Now this does not sound to me like the Big Red Cheese. Let's look at his points one by one:
The classic Captain Marvel is not complex. He is a mighty superhero who's alter ego is a boy. He doesn't have a girlfriend, there are no inherent neuroses, he isn't out for revenge, he just fights against injustice because that's what he was created to do. Later incarnations have the issue of him being a boy in a superhero's body, but even that is not so "complex with a lot going on." That's just "Freaky Friday" or Big" with super powers.
Captain Marvel has been brought to life several times, from the "Adventures of Captain Marvel serial in 1941 to the TV series "Shazam!" in the 1970's to his appearance in the "Legends of the Superheroes" specials.
Captain Marvel is not a "badass." Don;t get me wrong, he has the strength of Hercules and the courage of Achiles, and he can go toe-to-toe with Superman, but "badass" implies an attitude, It's a don't-fuck-with-me swagger that intimidates certain people. Captain Marvel is a nice guy. He has always been a nice guy. His "nice guy-ness" is one o the defining characteristics that differentiates him from other superheroes. Now I don;t know if they are going to go with the "Big" concept of the World's Mightiest Mortal having Billy Batson's mind, or if they will go with the original concept that they are separate personalities with shared memories, but they will probably go with the former, and true badassedness comes with having experience being as powerful as you are. You have the maturity to handle your power and now exactly what to do with it. Thus, Billy Batson, a 10-16-year-old boy (depending on which version you are reading) cannot be a badass. And Captain Marvel would never think of saying "motherfucker," much less want to be one.
Black Adam, on the other hand, is a complex, badass mo-fo. In the original version, he was exiled to the farthest star for turning evil, then flew 5000 miles back to take revenge. In the pre-"New 52" DC universe, he reformed himself and became a hero, serving with the Justice Society, then he conquered his home country, Qandaq, took over the government, and executed super-villains by tearing their bodies in half (because that's they way they did it back in his day, 5,000 years ago). He married the mighty Isis and adopted an injured boy and gave him the power to become Osiris (thes setting up a "Black Marvel" family), then got so upset when his wife was killed that he massacred every single man, woman and child in the neighboring country and went on a world-wide rampage that only ended when his "magic word" (which was also "Shazam") was changed. He then went on a worldwide trek to find it again. He then went on another worldwide trek with the skeleton he thought was of his wife to get her resurrected (it didn't work. someone switched skeletons on him). Somewhere in there he also "corrupted" a powerless Mary Batson by giving her a share of his power, turning her into "Black Mary" for a while. Now that's some complex badassery.
And that character has never been "brought to life" (except in a few animated cartoons).
Another thing about what Johnson said was that they were looking for a role that he could believably play. In the interview with TotalFilm.com, what talking about the discussions he has had with DC about what character he could play he said:
"There is baggage...and it's good baggage, that I have. I am a certain way and my wiring is my wiring, my DNA is my DNA, and when I step on stage or on screen I'm aware of what I am able to bring to a character, and so is DC [quotation edited for grammatical cohesiveness]."
Can we really see Dwayne Johnson, the rock, playing a young teenage boy awkwardly trying to figure out how to use a superhero's body and blshign at the attentions of a beautiful woman, or can we seem him as a powerful and vengeful ruler of a Middle-Eastern desert kingdom? Hmmm...now where have I seen that before...)
Now, I have been wrong before. I thought that 9/11 must have been an Iraqi plot, for instance. But I think that Dwayne Johnson's statements do not preclude the possibility of him being Black Adam, and, in fact, support that possibility.
A few things about it: First, I liked it a lot. It was fun, exciting, and had lots of good superhero and evil villain action. Physical absurdities were acceptable because of the medium (animated cartoons) and genre (Saturday morning cartoons).
Second, it paid tribute to the history of the character. News reporter "Tom Tyler" was named after the actor who portrayed the hero in the "Adventures of Captain Marvel" serial. One of the bullies in the orphanage was called "C. C.," the initials of the first artist to draw the hero. The subway car that took Billy and Batman to the throne room of Shazam was a perfect copy of the one in Whiz Comics, and the posters on the wall of Billy's room were good copies of old Whiz, Captain Marvel Adventures, and Shazam covers. The "Captain Sivana" thing happened in a a DC Comics Presents Annual written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Gil Kane in which the evil scientist managed to harness the magic of Shazam. The "reverse marvel" uniform appeared in a story from the 1970's "Shazam" comic series. Dr. Sivana's announced plan to shut down all wireless signals harkens back to the "Radio silencer" of the very first Captain Marvel story. The broken locked was the McGuffin of the story that introduced Billy's twin sister (nice to see they went back to the concept of twins, rather than Mary being a younger sister, like in the current DC incarnation). The stuffed tiger that looks like Calvin's Hobbs is an obvious reference to Jerry Ordway's version of Mr. Tawny from "Power of Shazam." Sivana bringing Black Adam to Earth was from the "Shazam: A New Beginning" miniseries by Roy Thomas and Tom Mandrake in the 1980's. Even the origin of Black Adam and the method by which he was defeated was used in Marvel Family #1, the very first appearance of the villain (it was also used in the "Shazam" cartoon series).
I'm not so sure how much I like Sivana Junior and Georgia having English accents, but their characters were very consistent with the classic villains in the comics. Sivana's "ha ha ha" laugh was not quite the "heh heh heh" I expected, but his plots and plans, threatening one catastrophe as a cover for a greater plan, and bringing in a powerful ally only to betray him in the end, in very in keeping with the character.
While there were some implications that Captain Marvel was young at heart, they did not play him like he was a kid in a man;s body, what was good for me. Personally, I like the idea that they are two different people that share memories. If you are the same person when one or the other, why not stay big and powewrful all the time? By beign an actual different person, then you have fodder for more stories, such as incidents where Captain MArvel can get into the kind of trouble that Billy Batson can avoid or get out of (In the Fawcett days, this was played for comedy a few times, mostly involving relationships with women).
In sum, if the long-promised "Shazam" movie ever comes about, this is not a bad template.
I know it seems like I've been on a Monica Rambeau kick lately, and a lot of it has to do with the article I wrote that is coming out in the December issue of Alter Ego magazine (watch for it!).
And now this fellow has made a little video tribute to Marvel Comics' second Captain Marvel (and the only one with no direct connection to Mar-Vell, the only black female one, and the one with the longest run of appearances in a single, uninterrupted comic series).
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