DC has unveiled the complete teaser for the Dwayne Johnson-starring Black Adam film, which emphasizes the character’s gritty, antiheroic qualities while providing a fuller picture of the forces that will be arrayed against The Rock’s rogue superhuman.
The Justice Society heroes—in particular, Pierce Brosnan’s Doctor Fate, who this time gets to employ his abilities, and Aldis Hodge’s Hawkman—who are out to “lock down” the “loose cannon” that is Black Adam—spend more time in the trailer. We also see a glimpse of Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, the brutal government agent from the Peacemaker TV series and the Suicide Squad movies, who appears to be in some ways controlling the Justice Society. It’s intriguing to watch how one figure is uniting these brands as Warner Bros. attempts to combine the many DC movie assets.
The teaser also offers us our first glimpse at a potential contender for the film’s actual antagonist: a few scenes include a horned figure that can only be Sabbac (Marwan Kenzari), a Russian crime lord with abilities comparable to those of an old demon and occasionally even stronger than Satan. Hawkman and Sabbac are seen engaged in the fight, but Black Adam is not.
The teaser mostly emphasizes how dark and perilous Black Adam is, as well as how he has the potential to either save or destroy the planet. Johnson, who is particularly devoid of humor, growls things like, “These talents are not a gift, but a curse, created out of wrath,” and “I kneel before no one,” while it’s natural that he may be feeling a little cheesed off after losing a kid and doing 5,000 years in jail.
On October 21, the movie Black Adam, which was directed by Spanish genre expert Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan, Non-Stop, The Shallows, Jungle Cruise), will be shown in theatres.