Dwayne Johnson has unveiled the latest trailer for his upcoming DC film Black Adam.
The trailer comes one day after the Rock shared the new poster on social media. “A new era in the DC Universe has begun,” he wrote in the caption.
Black Adam is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows, Orphan), and stars Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, and Pierce Brosnan. Viola Davis also appears to be reprising her role as Amanda Waller.
The trailer, which is once again backed by an altered version of Ye and Jay-Z’s Watch the Throne cut “Murder to Excellence,” delves a little further into Hawkman and Doctor Fate, played by Hodge and Brosnan, as well as the internal conflict facing Black Adam. Check it out up top.
According to Time, Johnson consistently spoke at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year about using Black Adam to usher in this “new era in the DC Universe,” a phrase he has attached to the latest entry in the DCEU. This trailer includes the formal announcement of the Justice Society of America, led by Doctor Fate. Johnson told Den of Geek that he’s looking “years down the road” with where he can take Black Adam and other characters within the DC Universe.
“The whole idea of building out the DC Universe, you have to think that way…I just didn’t want to make a one off,” the 50-year-old explained. “We wanted to create a Black Adam movie that became not only the bedrock but it also became the platform to launch other characters off of.”
Johnson wanted to put this film he’s worked a decade to get off the ground into the hands of a reliable director, and he found that person in Collet-Serra. The two previously worked together in the 2021 film Jungle Cruise.
Collet-Serra told Total Film his approach to directing Black Adam was about being “new and unique.”
“I like to be challenged, and I wanted to create new technology, so we developed the way that [Adam] moves, the way that he flies, his costume. And then it trickled down to every other character and the movie itself,” he said. “But there was always the goal—to be new and unique in the storytelling and in every aspect of it.”
Black Adam premieres in theaters on Oct. 21.
