Dwayne Johnson confirmed for ‘Shazam’ in 2016, may play Black Adam

Fans were shocked at SDCC to learn that Warner Bros and DC Comics will have Shazam in theaters in 2016. Now Dwayne Johnson is confirming his involvement in the project, but avoids his character or even role.

UPDATE: It is confirmed that Johnson will indeed play Black Adam – more HERE

RELEASE DATE CHANGE: Shazam to 2019?

Johnson told USA Today in an Aug. 18 article that, “I am putting my heart and soul and my bones into this role,” but was no comment on which role he’d be playing. The Rock has revealed that Black Adam is his favorite character.

In an interview with Total Film, Johnson talked about his DC Comics role during promotion of Hercules. “DC and I have been talking for a couple of years about trying to find who is the right character,” Johnson said. “I am a certain way, my wiring is my wiring,…”

Someone’s gonna get it.. pic.twitter.com/eH7GzWxx0u — Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) July 24, 2014

Shazam is the alter ego of orphaned boy, Billy Batson, capable of transforming into an adult superhero, simply by saying the word “Shazam.” Black Adam is a magically-powered warrior with goals of world domination.

Here’s the full teaser from Johnson earlier this year. Fans truly thought this was a Lobo hint, but now The Rock sounds certain to be in Shazam.

Shazam will arrive in theaters on August 5, 2016 if the schedule holds for now. The studio also earmarked June 23, 2017 and November 17, 2017, one of which will likely be the Sandman adaptation.

“Like everyone here in the room, I love superheroes, and we’ve been having ongoing discussions, myself and DC, for years about the right character,” Johnson said. “What would the right character be? And that’s another thing, too. It just had to be right. I won’t tell you who it is, but I’ll tell you the three qualities we’re looking for and I’ll let you guys figure it out, This is going to be fun. Here are the three qualities:

“The first quality we were looking for is that he had to be extremely complex and have a lot going on and what that does for me as an actor and for the studio, just gives us space that we can explore his complexities. The other quality is that the character we were looking for had to be well known but never brought to life. That does, again as an actor, is that it gives me a little bit of space and it just gives me a chance to put an imprint into his personality with the set of tools that I can 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 that he had to be a badass mother***ker and on a Superman level of power where he could throw down.

“In those three qualities, I’m happy we’ve found that character and right now we’re out to a lot of writers.”