The Rock reveals release date, first poster for Black Adam

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson might play near-superheroes in most of his films (looking at you, Fast and the Furious movies) but his first official foray into the genre, Black Adam, is right around the corner. We now have a release date and poster courtesy of the man himself:

And there you go: Black Adam lands in theaters December 22, 2021, ready to bring his own brand of justice to the big screen. As always, Johnson is looking pretty damn cool.

Black Adam is part of the DC Extended Universe, which is currently rehabbing itself after Batman v Superman and Justice failed to set the world on fire. The Rock describes the character like this:

"BLACK ADAM is blessed by magic with the powers equal to SUPERMAN, but the difference is he doesn’t toe the mark or walk the line.He’s a rebellious, one of a kind superhero, who’ll always do what’s right for the people – but he does it his way."

This is kind of surprising, since in the comics Black Adam has always been an unrepentant villain who served as a constant opponent for Shazam — who made his DCEU debut earlier this year, played by Zachary Levi — and other heroes. Unless some serious retconning is afoot, we’re thrown by Johnson’s proclamation that Adam will “always do what’s right for the people.”

Even the poster makes Black Adam look pretty evil. I mean, he’s scowling over the remains of a destroyed building with someone’s skeleton sticking out of the rubble. Does that feel like a hero’s poster to you?

Johnson has really only played a villain once, in 2005’s ill-fated Doom. Otherwise, he’s specialized in playing ferocious teddy bear type characters. With Johnson’s words kind of at odds with the poster and the character’s history, we’re not sure what we’ll get with Black Adam, but it’s The Rock, so we’re in either way.

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h/t The A.V. Club