>"Black Adam’s real name is Teth-Adam," Dwayne Johnson explains. “And the 'black' in Black Adam refers to his soul.”
>Black Adam’s turn to the dark side will also provide more of a rationale for his mercilessness, if not a justification for it. It’s all connected to something unspeakable that happened to his family when they were enslaved in the long-ago era. “That’s something that’s universal, that everyone can relate to,” Johnson says. “It doesn’t matter your color, or religion, or what your bank account says, or wherever you live, or what your job is. I mean, everybody can relate to family and wanting to do all you can to protect that family. And when your family’s ripped away from you... it changes the person.”
>Comics are full of heroes who lose loved ones to wrongdoers, only to seek solace in saving others from similar fates. Black Adam is just built differently. He’s more aligned with the vengeance-seeking antiheroes of the ’70s, whose brutality start to overtake that of their enemies: Think Charles Bronson in DEATH WISH, Pam Grier in FOXY BROWN, and Meiko Kaji in LADY SNOWBLOOW — or one particular cop who simply harbored extreme contempt for punks.
>“I talked early on about how there were many similar aspects between Black Adam and Dirty Harry, which is a movie that broke rules in the ’70s,” director Jaume Collet-Serra says. “The systems were corrupt, so you had criminals taking advantage. You needed a cop that would cut through the bullshit, and basically do what needs to be done. That’s very much in line with Black Adam and his way of thinking. I think that’s appealing to pretty much everybody. Everybody knows how the world sometimes is not fair, and you need people that break the rules to even out the playing field."
>The world doesn’t see Black Adam that way — at least, not when he is first awakened and unleashed on the earth as a terrifying, unstoppable supernatural force. To everyone else, he looks like a monster. And he basically is. “His view of this world that he is brought back into — the current world, now, after 5,000 years — is very myopic,” Johnson says. “There’s no room or space for him being wrong. There’s no room or space for anyone else’s opinion. There’s only room and space for him justifying anything that he does because of his pain. And he pushes and pushes and pushes and does not see any other way. It’s very black and white.”
>Eventually, all that pushing will lead him to others who are willing to push back.
>Think Charles Bronson in DEATH WISH, Pam Grier in FOXY BROWN, and Meiko Kaji in LADY SNOWBLOOW — or one particular cop who simply harbored extreme contempt for punks. >“I talked early on about how there were many similar aspects between Black Adam and Dirty Harry
>The film introduces moviegoers to the Justice Society of America — which is separate from the similar-sounding (and now more widely known) Justice League. The JSA started uniting heroes about two decades before and features the likes of Dr. Fate and Hawkman, who turn up in BLACK ADAM, played by Pierce Brosnan and Aldis Hodge.
>In the comics, Hawkman flies with wings forged from extraterrestrial metal. He also dates back to ancient Egyptian times, reincarnating ceaselessly over the centuries while passing on the mantle of the flying hero. In the present day, he is leader of the JSA and leads the others in standing up to Black Adam’s aggression. Collet-Serra notes that some DC writers have forged a connection between the two over the years that dates back several millennia. But the movie isn’t going to get tangled up with that.
>“In the comics, there are clear references of like, ‘Hey, I saw you 5,000 years ago. You remember me?’ We’re not doing that,” the filmmaker says. “It would be too confusing. Obviously, Hawkman reincarnates, so how many times do you need to reincarnate and still remember? All these rules are something you don’t want to set until those characters are really established.”
>Hodge’s Hawkman is repulsed by Black Adam’s tactics but shares some of his stubbornness. “He is a very driven character that knows that he’s on the right side,” Collet-Serra says. “Definitely, he’s a leader. He wants to bring this team together, and bring a certain stability to the world. Hawkman has a very strong sense of what’s right or wrong, and Black Adam challenges that.”
>Doctor Fate is known for his distinctive golden helmet and supernatural abilities, but Collet-Serra says this Black Adam opponent’s other superpower is raw charisma. While Fate can’t overpower Black Adam in the strength department, he might be able to reason with him.
>“You need a special actor to play, basically, a legend,” the filmmaker explains. “Doctor Fate is a very powerful being, so you need someone like Pierce who can play powerful without it being overly done. He can do it in a very subtle way. I mean, he’s one of the coolest people in the world—he was James Bond! But as a person, he’s magnetic, so warm with such gravitas.”
>"I am the elder of the group. I’m assured he’s one of the oldest characters in the pantheon of comic book characters," Brosnan reveals. "He’s an archaeologist, and he has powers to foresee the future, and raise the dead, and teleport, while wearing a gold helmet. It’s a blessing and a curse. It’s almost like a drug addiction in some respects. It takes a lot of energy to wear the helmet. It was a very beautifully designed outfit and helmet, which I’m quite fond of."
>While Hawkman and Dr. Fate are the veterans, the JSA also includes some relative novices. “With Cyclone and Atom Smasher, they’re also very beloved characters, but we’ve gone the younger route in this,” Collet-Serra says.
>Quintessa Swindell’s Cyclone hails from a family of heroes and now has to live up to that legacy, overshadowed by a grandmother who was known as Red Tornado. “It's always fun when you introduce characters in a team that have never really seen combat before, so the audience gets to experience it through those fresh eyes,” Collet-Serra says. “And the same with Atom Smasher, even though Atom Smasher is a bit more experienced. They’re close in age, and together they have a bond: We are the new ones here, let’s not screw it up.”
>"She has the power to harness and manipulate the wind," Swindell adds "Her power comes from nanobots she was injected with as a child, so she also has this aspect of her where she can control nanobots, and she has that technology as well."
>Noah Centineo’s Atom Smasher can make himself gigantic, but also feels crushed by the expectations that come with his powers. “He’s still not sure that this is what he wants to do,” Collet-Serra says. “He thinks this is what he wants to do. He thinks he’s on the right side, but he has a lot more questions.”
>That seems to be a running theme in Black Adam. The more certain you are that you’re right, the less likely that’s true.
>Like fellow rookie Cyclone, with whom he shares a close bond, Atom-Smasher is the latest in a long line of heroes, with "Happy Days" legend Henry Winkler making an appearance as his grandfather, who also happens to be the original Atom and one of the figureheads of the JSA.
>Deadpool costume >Ant-Man powers >Hallmark tier actor Why is WB so determined to ruin their own capeshit? They want to represent the JSA without hour man, without doctor midnight, without star girl, without Jay Garrick, hell not even Stargirl is here. Holy fuck how could they fuck up this bad?
