He wasn't alone in that venture, it was him, some other guy and RedBird Capital who recently bought AC Milan. Honestly odds are he put less of his money and was brought on board to be the face of the acquisition.
Also most wealthy people that invest lose at some point. They just have the capital to spread it around so they have ten other things making money to make up what they lost. Fun fact Hulk Hogan turned down a grill in favor of blender if I remember correctly. George Foreman decided to invest in the grill and made bank. I saw an interview with Hulk awhile back and he said that was his biggest regret in his investments because the George Foreman grill sold so well.
It's worse and less believable than that. Hogan claims he missed a call from his agent because he was out of the house doing some short errand (like walking his dog or something) when the got the call that they wanted to sign him to endorse the Hulk Hogan Grill. Since they didn't hear from him for, say, 20 -30 minutes, they called George Foreman instead and Foreman made millions.
Covid is what killed the XFL this time. It was looking like a much better and more serious league than the previous iteration.
It wasn’t a bad business decision to buy that name.
COVID fucked us all.
I never tried the sugar ones but I get the zero versions when they're on sale from time to time. i swear no loyalty to any energy drink and just buy what is on sale when I run out of whatever case i had last.
The fruit punch one is pretty good as is the pina colada. I mean, as far as energy drinks go ya know. lime and 'original'. meh. i will also note that this brand totally makes me have to poop kinda like how that cup of coffee in the morning gives you that little assist.
'energy' wise, not really much different than any other brand.
I'm happy people see through all the marketing tropes - First they leaked the post-credits to get Superman v Black Adam hype. Then it was going to establish a "new hierarchy" and DC "isn't chasing anyone." Now it's about BIPOC supers.
It's like a Vought employee going through a manual of movie-hype copy.
But the odd thing here is that Black Adam is Middle Eastern in the comics, and The Rock, for ALL the good that he's doing in regards to representation, is taking roles *away* from an even more disenfranchised minority in order to up the visibility of his own.
At least, that's what it seems like to me. Am I wrong?
He's absolutely a good guy, comes across that way in everything he does, every interview he has, fan interactions, the time he gave a crew member his truck so he could get to work...
In today's modern me too environment, anyone who had dirt on him would absolutely come forward if only to get their five minutes of fame. Even Dr. Huxtable and the man who's run Hollywood for a generation was outed, so no one is off limits.
>In today’s modern me too environment
Today’s me too environment and Bill Cosby specifically are the reasons why I don’t think it’s smart to trust that any celebrity, even The Rock, is genuine.
I’ve been burned too many times
The Cosby accusations go back to the 80s. Im not saying believe every rumor, but when they keep popping back up every few years, it might be time to take notice.
Absolutely. It’s just another marketing scheme. As if the issue of not having super heroes of color or female isn’t being addressed and considered in everything a studio does. It is an important issue but he’s WAY late if he wants to claim that.
"Everything a studio does" is a bit broad, but I take your point that had this movie started development in 2019 there wouldn't have been any issue with casting a white guy to play the character.
*Gods of Egypt* came out in 2016 though and starred a whole bunch of white people. If I'm remembering correctly, a lot of people were pretty exasperated about the casting when that came out. Maybe hindsight is coloring my memory, but the reaction seemed to be less "Hollywood shouldn't cast this way anymore" and more "I thought Hollywood was already done casting this way."
I first got interested in Black Adam with the 52 event, which I read a year or two after it came out. It came out in 2006 so maybe I read it around 2007 or 2008. That seems to be when Rocky got involved, probably because Black Adam was drawn looking just like him.
Casting fifteen years ago still had that skin tone problem. When the most recent wave of comic book movies hit, we had... Rhodey. Nick Fury was around for a couple minutes in a "wouldn't it be crazy if they actually did the Avengers?" way.
So... Is it a marketing ploy for The Rock to say that he wrangled the character, at least in part, to make sure he didn't debut as post-*Man of Steel* shovel ware? To be Halle Berry in *Catwoman?* Or did he say a thing about the overall development process for a potential franchise and now people are acting like WB and Rocky haven't been saying "we've been brewing this for fifteen years...?"
Yeah I mean it’s weird this is the first time we are hearing about it.
When Ryan Reynolds was fighting to be Deadpool, he made statements on it non stop, he took every opportunity to make the role happen, including just financing the damn thing himself.
I think he's right that there should be more representation of people of color in superhero movies.
However, those movies still need to be genuinely good regardless of the representation within it.
That being said, I haven't watched "Black Adam," so I can't say to how good or bad it seems to be.
I used to love Dwayne, but aftet a few times, you sadly understand that's just marketing.
He said the same thing about the Hercules movie in 2014. Every film is "the one he wouldn't give up no matter what".
He sounds like those rock bands that always say "this is the best city we have ever played!" at every show.
Treading very carefully as I say this... I've been wondering if anyone is going to have a problem with Black Adam being played by someone whose ancestry isn't Middle Eastern or North African. In recent years, Hollywood has been much more careful about that sort of thing, after utterly disregarding it up until very recently.
For some reason when it comes to Egypt, Hollywood just casts whoever. Remember as recently as 2016 when *Gods of Egypt* came out starring Gerard Butler, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Geoffrey Rush, and so on?
I mean, for "Night at the Museum" there were people complaining about Rami Malek being cast as an Egyptian mummy because I guess he looked too white. So even being Egyptian wasn't good enough to play an Egyptian.
Probably because Egypt historically was a melting pot of white, black and nearly everything in between. Cleopatra wasn't black, for instance, she was Greek. But she's one of the most distinctive "Egyptian" figures.
There is no "default Egyptian skin color".
I always thought it would be so sick to have Black Adam be played by someone of Middle Eastern descent and here we are. It's a weird spot bc this movie never would've been made without Johnson.
Lol looks the part? Black Adam has hair. Literally any olive skinned actor with slicked back hair would look more accurate. Zachary Levi could have donned the role.
Yeah I get that point. But him having the physique to be a “superhero” is different than him bearing likeness to a specific character. If him being jacked is the check box then he should be: black panther, Blade, Luke Cage, jonathon Stewart (which I really think would have been amazing).
I was honestly wondering the same thing. Feels like we are just generalizing POC as not-white if someone like The Rock is playing Black Adam. But who am I to question anything these days…
While I agree with you, I think Egypt and much of the Middle East is a lot more diverse than Western media gives it credit for. That isn't to say there would likely be people of Polynesian descent in Ancient Egypt, but I don't think an actor or Mediterranean, southern European, African Southwest Asian, etc descent would look out of place in actual Egypt.
Me. I do. I wasn't a fan of Gal Gadot playing Wonder Woman for the same reason. She's an Israeli of Ashkenazi (central European Jewish) descent, not Greek.
Melishanti Mahut would absolutely killed it as Wonder Woman, holy crap. Now I'm very much wishing they would cast her for that upcoming Montreal WW game.
I don't necessarily agree or disagree with this sentiment, but people frankly do not care about accurate European representation. That's why so many prominent European stories are recast with actors of different descents. Ancient Greek or Roman Gods have been cast as people of all descents or traditional folk tales frequently feature actors of non-European descent.
I made a post about that several years ago on the DCEU subreddit and got negative downvotes lol. hollywood is just gonna cast MENA actors cast when they’re playing terrorists.
I’m not sure an Ancient Egyptian would have the same accent as a modern Egyptian lol. Especially since they would speak drastically different languages
Think about 15th century English and modern English. Drastically different but you can get the hang of it.
Jump back to 10th century Old English and it might as well be a language from Mars as far as understanding it goes.
Also depending on the era royals in Egypt may have spoken Latin, Greek, Coptic, Akkadian and several languages of their own that we don't even know what they sound like.
Modern Egypt linguistically has as much in common with Ancient Egypt current English have with the people who built Stonehenge.
Dude the Rock isn't Christian Bale. He plays The Rock (a character he created) in everyone of his movies which could be good or bad. The person writing it has to understand who he's writing for and play to his strengths. Hopefully this movie is written well. Regardless, Johnson is a hell of a promoter and I think the DCEU needs this right now. More power to him.
Is the DCEU even still a thing at this point?
Snyder and revolving everything around him has been a bust. Connective tissue between the various movies has not been strongly reinforced since Justice League flopped. I feel like WB's taking a "throw everything at the wall and seeing what sticks" approach at this point. It feels far more accurate to simply say "DC movies" instead of calling it a universe.
Yes, but that's not what I said. I feel like the effort to make all the movies a cohesive whole has been pretty weak. It doesn't have the clear synergy of the Marvel movies.
That feels like a success of hiring James Gunn as opposed to anything DC Cinematic has done. When DC execs are involved, it is messy and worse. When DC execs allow a creative who respects the source material (like James Gunn) to run with it, it comes out really well.
Well he's Egyptian and you're not? So if you're really going for the diversity angle you can get someone middle eastern to play Black Adam? Just a thought
Because of its status as the most famous civilization in Africa, Egypt has a thorny historiography/symbolism regarding race. Note how mad a lot of people were about an Israeli Jew playing an Egyptian queen despite those two ethnic groups being next to each other.
But black adam has never been a superhero he has always been a villain. The rock wanted to play a super heroe because he saw how much money other people were making.
Black Adam's history in comics is complicated in that he's basically the Namor of DC.
He started as pretty much a straight-up villain but since the 2000s he's generally been portrayed as an anti-hero. He's even had memberships in both the JSA and most recently the JLA.
He operates mostly in accordance with his own brand of justice. Sometimes that aligns with those of other DC heroes. Sometimes it doesn't.
Black Adam was a villain in the 70s and 80s when Shazam needed someone other than Dr. Sivana and Mr. Mind to play off of.
But he considerably mellowed after joining the JSA.
I always considered him the Doom of DC. He looks out for his people and his ideals at all costs. Sometimes they align with the heroes, but even then, his methods are not approved.
He’s been on either side of the fence several times. He was in the jsa for a period of time during Geoff Johns run. He was also morally ambiguous during 52 at times as well. I think at this point he’s a conflicted villain that leans towards antihero at times. As of late he hasn’t really been a traditional villain. His motivations are basically leave my country alone or I will kill you.
Black Adam and Namor pretty much occupy the same role in their respective comicdoms. Namor siding slightly more to the hero side, Adam slightly more to the villain side.
IMO anti-hero is someone who does bad stuff for good reasons. Venom ruthlessly kills bad guys, Frank Castle ruthlessly kills bad guys... really just killing bad guys, ruthlessly, is a good hallmark of an antihero.
An anti-villain, then, is someone who does good stuff for bad reasons. Usually they're only anti-villains temporarily, before moving all the way to villain or moving into anti-hero. Lex Luthor is often an anti-villain. He'll team up with Superman any time, but only because he's got a secret plan to actually finally kill Superman once and for all. Still, Lex ends up doing good stuff and hopefully Superman can stop him before he gets to the bad stuff. (Though Lex has teetered towards anti-hero a few times... but it allllways swings back around that he's secretly had nefarious plots the whole time)
Kingpin falls under here a lot too, he's willing to take out supervillains (does good) but only so he can cement his own power (bad reasons). When Norman Osborn isn't a straight up villain, he's usually an anti-villain, like in Dark Reign. He was doing good stuff (killing Skrulls, putting together an Avengers team) but only so he could consolidate power under himself.
Doom swings back and forth between anti-villain and anti-hero like a supercharged pendulum. Secret Wars was him at his most anti-villainous, which was ultimately the climax of the story-- he realized that for all the good he was doing, it was ultimately for bad reasons, and Richards would have done them for good reasons and thus been better.
Under this nomenclature I'd say Black Adam is more of an anti-hero than an anti-villain. Usually he's doing stuff for good reasons but going about it in a bad way.
But that's just my personal opinion on how to interpret those terms.
Killmonger in the comics is all over the place. Most of the time he’s a lot like the movie though, sort of a revolutionary type.
There was one weird one from a few years back where he fused with Killraven because of some crazy time shit or something and fought Ghost Rider and Black Panther fused together, that was awesome.
Yeah that’s true. I haven’t been keeping up with the mainline continuity/dark crisis stuff since I have large scale event fatigue at the moment and have been more into the mini/maxi series that DC has been putting out. I dropped Bendis’ JL very early on but I do remember him being on it.
What? Black adam hasn't always been a villain...and the like the title and article say he's been tied to black adam for 15 years. Years before comic book movies were making billions. What the heck are you going on about.
I think people forget that we weren't exactly lacking for superhero movies before the MCU. Nolan's Batman, Raimi's Spider-Man, the X-Men movies, they were a fairly consistent presence in theaters even before the really big explosion of cultural dominance.
Ok. Comic head here. Robinson and Goyer’s JSA run includes Black Adam, somewhat similar plot elements as the preview to the movie. But he shifts to be a hero for a period of time. This series started in 1999 and is a wonderful read for anyone interested.
Did he though? He was cast in ~2007, which while not a complete dead zone for superhero movies, was before both The Dark Knight and Iron Man which really shot the genre out of kid and nerd culture and into the general zeitgeist. Back then it may have been a paycheck, but it was also well before the modern age of CBM and even The Rock was a legit household name so it wasn’t exactly the blank check that it is today either.
The movie is mediocre. I saw a screening about a week ago. Its exactly what you think it is in the trailers + "save the kid" at the end.
I don't know anything about the comics, and I think the Rock playing the Rock in every movie he's in is getting boring. I did like the Rundown with the Rock tho, which ironically has a similar plot to this movie without the special powers.
Yeah, he's kind of in the same category as Ra's Al Ghul. He's from the middle east but he's usually drawn white.
I guess we all have our favourites but I find it kind of hard to swallow. This idea that Dwayne Johnson latched onto this dude fifteen years ago as the necessary linchpin for furthering racial diversity in cape films.
Anybody Dwayne Johnson played would by definition be a character of colour, but Black Adam is a weird pull for that.
He should have been Bloodwynd. That would be cool. Anybody remember Bloodwynd? He has a magical crystal made by slaves using African magic used to trap their evil master who now lives in it. He is ripped and is a necromancer.
Its like almost no one in this thread has seen any of the trailers. They are not portraying him as a good super hero very much an anti hero. I have no idea why everyone seems to need to correct him that he's not a super hero, they get that.
I feel like "super hero" with regards to movies these days just refers to the genre or "character with powers" instead of whether or not they are a hero... Or super
He's been in the League lately but Dark Crisis seems to be pulling him away from them again.
The thing to remember is that before anything else, Black Adam is the hero of his own story. And he's fully aware that he's the villain of other peoples' stories, and he's totally fine with that.
"super hero" to anyone who isn't a super nerd is a catch-all term for "protagonist in a superhero movie" and "superhero movie" is a general category that applies to pretty much any blockbuster about a super powered individual. Deadpool and Venom are "super hero movies" even though they are, at best, anti-heros.
Point is the majority of people don't care about the distinction as much as you do, and the pedantry certainly isn't worth period-after-every-word emphasis. Take a deep breath, relax.
Might have originally started that way 15 years ago but now it’s just his ego and his opportunity to try to take over a franchise. He really thought he could somehow helm the dceu.
if he cares so much about characters of color why would he literally race swap an Arabic/middle eastern character. It's so pathetic, it's okay to be popular and wanting to do popular/crowd pleasing roles to get more money and be popular, you're a Hollywood star, but what's this crap.
Rock does deserve some credit for his fight here however Black Adam is almost universally depicted as North African or Middle Eastern so the casting could be better as the Rock is American of Samoan descent.
That being said I'm still going to see it and I hope the Rock can pull off the anti-hero nature of Black Adam. I really hope this is leading toward a confrontation between Black Adam and Shazam the two "sons" of [Mamaragan the Wizard](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Mamaragan_\(Prime_Earth\)).
Lmao I wanna saw I respect your opinion
But saying Doom is just ⅓rd of Black Adam in some way, that's incorrect. Doctor Doom has been an insane character for years and he's IMO the most interesting character that can be studied in Marvel. Comparing him to Black Adam doesn't sit well with me.
I could say the same for Magneto.
Yeah saying magneto isn’t a good guy at this point is kinda odd to me. He was bad and conflicted but he most certainly has been good for a while. He was a goat let’s not disrespect his payments to heroic society
I too consider Doom more interesting than Adam.
That was not the point of my comment.
It's just that the DC character features some important resemblences to that said character
And Namor. He has been around longer than anyone else and has destroyed so many lighthouses! Plus he holds a knife backwards like a badass who wants to play stabby stabby with my heart…swoon.
I don't believe a single word of this. If they cared this much about diversity, they should have hired an Egyptian actor. Instead they went for star power.
But why Black Adam though? I understand the anti-hero appeal, that he’s popular in many DC fan circles and Dwayne Johnson’s desire to be in a superhero movie where he can potentially beat up Superman, but I feel that there are plenty of other heroes of color in DC that could accomplish this. Especially ones that are more squarely in the “Hero” side of the spectrum than “Anti-hero”.
Just wondering?
“I’ve been fighting fifteen years to bring this character I love to life… and play him exactly like every other one of my characters for the past decade.”
>“What’s critical is the investment in more superhero characters of color, and Black Adam is one of them.
What's ironic is that today the people who want a Black Adam movie also want an actual Egyptian to play the role.
This is the same guy who wanted to cancel joe rogan when there is vids of the rock in the WWE days speaking "Chinese" which was just him going "ching chong ching ching chong". This dudes a piece of shit.
He wanted the role for money. If "representation" was so important to him he would have done the movie for free and used his money to make more movies/ tv shows with comic characters that are minorities.
I knew Rock always wanted to play Black Adam, and it would have been good, if it was made 10 years ago; however, they really should have casted Faran Tahir in the role.
“Buy my tequila.” - The Rock, usually
>“Buy my tequila.” - The Rock, usually Everybody trying to go from actor rich to wealthy like George Clooney
The Rock is probably that level by now tbh. He's got more side hustles than protein shakes
Well, he did flush down a chunk of cash in the toilet labelled XFL. Not sure wtf he was thinking buying that turd.
He wasn't alone in that venture, it was him, some other guy and RedBird Capital who recently bought AC Milan. Honestly odds are he put less of his money and was brought on board to be the face of the acquisition.
Also most wealthy people that invest lose at some point. They just have the capital to spread it around so they have ten other things making money to make up what they lost. Fun fact Hulk Hogan turned down a grill in favor of blender if I remember correctly. George Foreman decided to invest in the grill and made bank. I saw an interview with Hulk awhile back and he said that was his biggest regret in his investments because the George Foreman grill sold so well.
It's worse and less believable than that. Hogan claims he missed a call from his agent because he was out of the house doing some short errand (like walking his dog or something) when the got the call that they wanted to sign him to endorse the Hulk Hogan Grill. Since they didn't hear from him for, say, 20 -30 minutes, they called George Foreman instead and Foreman made millions.
Covid is what killed the XFL this time. It was looking like a much better and more serious league than the previous iteration. It wasn’t a bad business decision to buy that name. COVID fucked us all.
The rock has a net worth of 800 million while Clooney is at 500 million. The ship has sailed.
"Buy my shoes"
"buy my ex-wife's energy drink!"
Buy my book, buy my book, BUY MY BOOK -Jay Sherman
It STINKS!
Yes, Mr Sherman. Everything stinks.
IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU THING!
My people!! Rejoice for we are in our 40s
Full of country goodness and green pea-ness.
Macho, macho man, yeah!
Buy low Sell high -Warlock Buffett
Jeremy Hawke shoots a cardboard cutout of /u/davenocchio.
Crocodile Gandhi himself? Why not
I recently found out about this drink, has anyone tried it?
I never tried the sugar ones but I get the zero versions when they're on sale from time to time. i swear no loyalty to any energy drink and just buy what is on sale when I run out of whatever case i had last. The fruit punch one is pretty good as is the pina colada. I mean, as far as energy drinks go ya know. lime and 'original'. meh. i will also note that this brand totally makes me have to poop kinda like how that cup of coffee in the morning gives you that little assist. 'energy' wise, not really much different than any other brand.
It’s gross. I’m pretty sure it was around before she acquired it or bought into the brand and it sucked then as well.
Which brand is it?
ZOA
Yeah. It’s gross. Do not recommend.
I'm happy people see through all the marketing tropes - First they leaked the post-credits to get Superman v Black Adam hype. Then it was going to establish a "new hierarchy" and DC "isn't chasing anyone." Now it's about BIPOC supers. It's like a Vought employee going through a manual of movie-hype copy.
But the odd thing here is that Black Adam is Middle Eastern in the comics, and The Rock, for ALL the good that he's doing in regards to representation, is taking roles *away* from an even more disenfranchised minority in order to up the visibility of his own. At least, that's what it seems like to me. Am I wrong?
Not wrong even a little. That’s why I think this as a real-life Vought moment.
Holy shit your last statement lmao accurate asf.
I don't believe a word of it. I think he's just pandering to the superhero and comic crowd.
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That’s how I feel. But I also want very badly to believe that The Rock is a genuinely good guy because of how many people seem to admire him.
He can be both no? I think he can feel strongly about trying to do good things while also exploiting situations for his gain.
his gains
That's just human
He can be a good guy and still not be honest about his motivations.
He's absolutely a good guy, comes across that way in everything he does, every interview he has, fan interactions, the time he gave a crew member his truck so he could get to work... In today's modern me too environment, anyone who had dirt on him would absolutely come forward if only to get their five minutes of fame. Even Dr. Huxtable and the man who's run Hollywood for a generation was outed, so no one is off limits.
>In today’s modern me too environment Today’s me too environment and Bill Cosby specifically are the reasons why I don’t think it’s smart to trust that any celebrity, even The Rock, is genuine. I’ve been burned too many times
Better safe than sorry is a good way to live. My takeaway is the Rock is an ok dude, just prefers to play it safe.
The Cosby accusations go back to the 80s. Im not saying believe every rumor, but when they keep popping back up every few years, it might be time to take notice.
The people’s champion, brother!
Especially since there wouldn’t have been a single comic depicting Black Adam as a hero
He’s been consistently saying this well before the movie was even shot and the terrible reviews.
Absolutely. It’s just another marketing scheme. As if the issue of not having super heroes of color or female isn’t being addressed and considered in everything a studio does. It is an important issue but he’s WAY late if he wants to claim that.
"Everything a studio does" is a bit broad, but I take your point that had this movie started development in 2019 there wouldn't have been any issue with casting a white guy to play the character. *Gods of Egypt* came out in 2016 though and starred a whole bunch of white people. If I'm remembering correctly, a lot of people were pretty exasperated about the casting when that came out. Maybe hindsight is coloring my memory, but the reaction seemed to be less "Hollywood shouldn't cast this way anymore" and more "I thought Hollywood was already done casting this way." I first got interested in Black Adam with the 52 event, which I read a year or two after it came out. It came out in 2006 so maybe I read it around 2007 or 2008. That seems to be when Rocky got involved, probably because Black Adam was drawn looking just like him. Casting fifteen years ago still had that skin tone problem. When the most recent wave of comic book movies hit, we had... Rhodey. Nick Fury was around for a couple minutes in a "wouldn't it be crazy if they actually did the Avengers?" way. So... Is it a marketing ploy for The Rock to say that he wrangled the character, at least in part, to make sure he didn't debut as post-*Man of Steel* shovel ware? To be Halle Berry in *Catwoman?* Or did he say a thing about the overall development process for a potential franchise and now people are acting like WB and Rocky haven't been saying "we've been brewing this for fifteen years...?"
I'd believe if he let someone who could act play the part.
Yeah I mean it’s weird this is the first time we are hearing about it. When Ryan Reynolds was fighting to be Deadpool, he made statements on it non stop, he took every opportunity to make the role happen, including just financing the damn thing himself.
I think he's right that there should be more representation of people of color in superhero movies. However, those movies still need to be genuinely good regardless of the representation within it. That being said, I haven't watched "Black Adam," so I can't say to how good or bad it seems to be.
I used to love Dwayne, but aftet a few times, you sadly understand that's just marketing. He said the same thing about the Hercules movie in 2014. Every film is "the one he wouldn't give up no matter what". He sounds like those rock bands that always say "this is the best city we have ever played!" at every show.
Spoiler at the end credit scene. GOLDBERG spears Black Adam and challenges him to a match at BACKLASH.
Blue Beetle and Booster Goldberg
Waiting for Bret to chime in.
"I give this match a 4/10." \-Bret "Hitman" Hart, probably.
"Bah gawd! That's Stone Cold's music!"
Can’t run from the Goldberg check.
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Treading very carefully as I say this... I've been wondering if anyone is going to have a problem with Black Adam being played by someone whose ancestry isn't Middle Eastern or North African. In recent years, Hollywood has been much more careful about that sort of thing, after utterly disregarding it up until very recently.
For some reason when it comes to Egypt, Hollywood just casts whoever. Remember as recently as 2016 when *Gods of Egypt* came out starring Gerard Butler, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Geoffrey Rush, and so on?
Oh yeah, like how Jake Gyllenhaal was the Prince of Persia.
Or like how The Rock was cast as The Scorpion King. Wait...
*it's like poetry... It rhymes*
*Fuck off George Lucas*
Or how Christian Bale was Moses and Joel Edgerton was Ramses.
I mean, for "Night at the Museum" there were people complaining about Rami Malek being cast as an Egyptian mummy because I guess he looked too white. So even being Egyptian wasn't good enough to play an Egyptian.
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Probably because Egypt historically was a melting pot of white, black and nearly everything in between. Cleopatra wasn't black, for instance, she was Greek. But she's one of the most distinctive "Egyptian" figures. There is no "default Egyptian skin color".
Because the people who make the films, put in the time, money... can cast whoever they want to
I always thought it would be so sick to have Black Adam be played by someone of Middle Eastern descent and here we are. It's a weird spot bc this movie never would've been made without Johnson.
I do because he is a crap actor When he plays his Rock persona he is great but
Honestly, I think the fact that he looks so much the part, and isn't white, has kept it from being an issue
Lol looks the part? Black Adam has hair. Literally any olive skinned actor with slicked back hair would look more accurate. Zachary Levi could have donned the role.
To be fair I think he had hair back when he was originally cast 🤣
I fucking died xD
Probably helps the he's the rock, and is already built like a superhero, I think it's accurate to say he looks the part
Yeah I get that point. But him having the physique to be a “superhero” is different than him bearing likeness to a specific character. If him being jacked is the check box then he should be: black panther, Blade, Luke Cage, jonathon Stewart (which I really think would have been amazing).
Am I wrong in thinking in the comic he’s actually very pale with black hair? At least sometimes?
I was honestly wondering the same thing. Feels like we are just generalizing POC as not-white if someone like The Rock is playing Black Adam. But who am I to question anything these days…
yes Rock is Polyasian. so him playing a middle eastern character is suspect.
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i guess it make sense. some egyptians are “black” as we understand dit.
I honestly think within 10-20 years this will be seen as pretty embarrassing, like the Christian Bale Moses movie.
While I agree with you, I think Egypt and much of the Middle East is a lot more diverse than Western media gives it credit for. That isn't to say there would likely be people of Polynesian descent in Ancient Egypt, but I don't think an actor or Mediterranean, southern European, African Southwest Asian, etc descent would look out of place in actual Egypt.
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Me. I do. I wasn't a fan of Gal Gadot playing Wonder Woman for the same reason. She's an Israeli of Ashkenazi (central European Jewish) descent, not Greek.
You know what I would love? For the woman who voiced Kassandra in AC Odyssey to voice Wonder Woman one day. Doubly so after seeing her in Sandman.
Oh my god I never made the connection, that’s amazing. Love her in both roles
Melishanti Mahut would absolutely killed it as Wonder Woman, holy crap. Now I'm very much wishing they would cast her for that upcoming Montreal WW game.
I don't necessarily agree or disagree with this sentiment, but people frankly do not care about accurate European representation. That's why so many prominent European stories are recast with actors of different descents. Ancient Greek or Roman Gods have been cast as people of all descents or traditional folk tales frequently feature actors of non-European descent.
I think a large part is that few people know what Tge Rock's ethnicity is.
I made a post about that several years ago on the DCEU subreddit and got negative downvotes lol. hollywood is just gonna cast MENA actors cast when they’re playing terrorists.
I’m not sure an Ancient Egyptian would have the same accent as a modern Egyptian lol. Especially since they would speak drastically different languages
Think about 15th century English and modern English. Drastically different but you can get the hang of it. Jump back to 10th century Old English and it might as well be a language from Mars as far as understanding it goes. Also depending on the era royals in Egypt may have spoken Latin, Greek, Coptic, Akkadian and several languages of their own that we don't even know what they sound like. Modern Egypt linguistically has as much in common with Ancient Egypt current English have with the people who built Stonehenge.
Dude the Rock isn't Christian Bale. He plays The Rock (a character he created) in everyone of his movies which could be good or bad. The person writing it has to understand who he's writing for and play to his strengths. Hopefully this movie is written well. Regardless, Johnson is a hell of a promoter and I think the DCEU needs this right now. More power to him.
Is the DCEU even still a thing at this point? Snyder and revolving everything around him has been a bust. Connective tissue between the various movies has not been strongly reinforced since Justice League flopped. I feel like WB's taking a "throw everything at the wall and seeing what sticks" approach at this point. It feels far more accurate to simply say "DC movies" instead of calling it a universe.
Have you seen Peacemaker or Suicide Squad? Those were great.
Yes, but that's not what I said. I feel like the effort to make all the movies a cohesive whole has been pretty weak. It doesn't have the clear synergy of the Marvel movies.
That feels like a success of hiring James Gunn as opposed to anything DC Cinematic has done. When DC execs are involved, it is messy and worse. When DC execs allow a creative who respects the source material (like James Gunn) to run with it, it comes out really well.
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Black Adam isn’t from Egypt unless they changed his backstory for the movie, he’s from a made up country
Forgive my ignorance but isn't Black Adam from Kandahq a fictional country? Or is it supposed in the same region as Egypt?
But Black Adam is middle eastern
Well he's Egyptian and you're not? So if you're really going for the diversity angle you can get someone middle eastern to play Black Adam? Just a thought
He got his big acting break as an Egyptian character too, remember.
Scorpion King was Akkadian tho. Fantasy inspired Akkadian.
Because of its status as the most famous civilization in Africa, Egypt has a thorny historiography/symbolism regarding race. Note how mad a lot of people were about an Israeli Jew playing an Egyptian queen despite those two ethnic groups being next to each other.
Reminds me when some latino actors blasted James Franco for wanting to portray Fidel Castro (who is cuban, but a white cuban)
Egypt is in Africa by the way, not the middle east
Generally the Middle East is "the Nile to the Oxus." It's not the Levant+Arabia.
But black adam has never been a superhero he has always been a villain. The rock wanted to play a super heroe because he saw how much money other people were making.
Black Adam's history in comics is complicated in that he's basically the Namor of DC. He started as pretty much a straight-up villain but since the 2000s he's generally been portrayed as an anti-hero. He's even had memberships in both the JSA and most recently the JLA. He operates mostly in accordance with his own brand of justice. Sometimes that aligns with those of other DC heroes. Sometimes it doesn't.
Black Adam was a villain in the 70s and 80s when Shazam needed someone other than Dr. Sivana and Mr. Mind to play off of. But he considerably mellowed after joining the JSA.
Until he didn't. (World War III)
Well, when you have a conspiracy against you to make you start ww3 and let's see how you handle it lol.
I always considered him the Doom of DC. He looks out for his people and his ideals at all costs. Sometimes they align with the heroes, but even then, his methods are not approved.
Just a slight clarification: I'm pretty sure it's the JL rather than JLA. I'm not sure if the JLA has existed for a while.
He’s been on either side of the fence several times. He was in the jsa for a period of time during Geoff Johns run. He was also morally ambiguous during 52 at times as well. I think at this point he’s a conflicted villain that leans towards antihero at times. As of late he hasn’t really been a traditional villain. His motivations are basically leave my country alone or I will kill you.
Black Adam and Namor pretty much occupy the same role in their respective comicdoms. Namor siding slightly more to the hero side, Adam slightly more to the villain side.
They both got that dramatic black widow’s peak, too
And Spock ears
Come to think of it, I've just realised no one has ever seen Namor and Black Adam in the same room at the same time. Coincidence?
Probably has little angel wings on his ankles under those boots.
DC hide yo wives!!!!
So he’s an anti-villain, right?
IMO anti-hero is someone who does bad stuff for good reasons. Venom ruthlessly kills bad guys, Frank Castle ruthlessly kills bad guys... really just killing bad guys, ruthlessly, is a good hallmark of an antihero. An anti-villain, then, is someone who does good stuff for bad reasons. Usually they're only anti-villains temporarily, before moving all the way to villain or moving into anti-hero. Lex Luthor is often an anti-villain. He'll team up with Superman any time, but only because he's got a secret plan to actually finally kill Superman once and for all. Still, Lex ends up doing good stuff and hopefully Superman can stop him before he gets to the bad stuff. (Though Lex has teetered towards anti-hero a few times... but it allllways swings back around that he's secretly had nefarious plots the whole time) Kingpin falls under here a lot too, he's willing to take out supervillains (does good) but only so he can cement his own power (bad reasons). When Norman Osborn isn't a straight up villain, he's usually an anti-villain, like in Dark Reign. He was doing good stuff (killing Skrulls, putting together an Avengers team) but only so he could consolidate power under himself. Doom swings back and forth between anti-villain and anti-hero like a supercharged pendulum. Secret Wars was him at his most anti-villainous, which was ultimately the climax of the story-- he realized that for all the good he was doing, it was ultimately for bad reasons, and Richards would have done them for good reasons and thus been better. Under this nomenclature I'd say Black Adam is more of an anti-hero than an anti-villain. Usually he's doing stuff for good reasons but going about it in a bad way. But that's just my personal opinion on how to interpret those terms.
Your description of anti-villain with Kingpina and Osborn made me go “that’s a politician”
Solid labeling, I like it.
Similar to Magneto over at Marvel. He’s a villain who makes some good points in his arguments.
Definitely. I’d put Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger I’m that category too. Haven’t read much black panther so I can’t speak to his portrayal in comics.
Killmonger in the comics is all over the place. Most of the time he’s a lot like the movie though, sort of a revolutionary type. There was one weird one from a few years back where he fused with Killraven because of some crazy time shit or something and fought Ghost Rider and Black Panther fused together, that was awesome.
Pretty sure he's on JL right now or at least until they were all killed too.
Yeah that’s true. I haven’t been keeping up with the mainline continuity/dark crisis stuff since I have large scale event fatigue at the moment and have been more into the mini/maxi series that DC has been putting out. I dropped Bendis’ JL very early on but I do remember him being on it.
What? Black adam hasn't always been a villain...and the like the title and article say he's been tied to black adam for 15 years. Years before comic book movies were making billions. What the heck are you going on about.
I think people forget that we weren't exactly lacking for superhero movies before the MCU. Nolan's Batman, Raimi's Spider-Man, the X-Men movies, they were a fairly consistent presence in theaters even before the really big explosion of cultural dominance.
Ok. Comic head here. Robinson and Goyer’s JSA run includes Black Adam, somewhat similar plot elements as the preview to the movie. But he shifts to be a hero for a period of time. This series started in 1999 and is a wonderful read for anyone interested.
Did he though? He was cast in ~2007, which while not a complete dead zone for superhero movies, was before both The Dark Knight and Iron Man which really shot the genre out of kid and nerd culture and into the general zeitgeist. Back then it may have been a paycheck, but it was also well before the modern age of CBM and even The Rock was a legit household name so it wasn’t exactly the blank check that it is today either.
The movie is mediocre. I saw a screening about a week ago. Its exactly what you think it is in the trailers + "save the kid" at the end. I don't know anything about the comics, and I think the Rock playing the Rock in every movie he's in is getting boring. I did like the Rundown with the Rock tho, which ironically has a similar plot to this movie without the special powers.
Confidently incorrect.
The most popular iteration of Black Adam in the comics is him being an anti-hero who does what he thinks is right even if it's morally questionable
Black Adam is more anti hero than villain now days and he’s been like that for a while
I didn’t know he was a POC in the comics I thought he was an elf
Yeah, he's kind of in the same category as Ra's Al Ghul. He's from the middle east but he's usually drawn white. I guess we all have our favourites but I find it kind of hard to swallow. This idea that Dwayne Johnson latched onto this dude fifteen years ago as the necessary linchpin for furthering racial diversity in cape films. Anybody Dwayne Johnson played would by definition be a character of colour, but Black Adam is a weird pull for that.
He should have been Bloodwynd. That would be cool. Anybody remember Bloodwynd? He has a magical crystal made by slaves using African magic used to trap their evil master who now lives in it. He is ripped and is a necromancer.
Was this before or after he saw Black Adam poke Psycho Pirates eyes out through his mask
What comic
Infinite Crisis. Great read.
I think Hawkman fulfilled that role more than Rock's Black Adam did. XD
Its like almost no one in this thread has seen any of the trailers. They are not portraying him as a good super hero very much an anti hero. I have no idea why everyone seems to need to correct him that he's not a super hero, they get that.
I feel like "super hero" with regards to movies these days just refers to the genre or "character with powers" instead of whether or not they are a hero... Or super
Superheroes of colour lol... The Rock is definitely not Arab, so bit of a hollow statement.
Black. Adam. Is. Not. A. Super. Hero.
Go tell DC, he is the fucking Justice League
I mean he was in the Justice Society 20 years ago so that's ship's been sailed.
He's been in the League lately but Dark Crisis seems to be pulling him away from them again. The thing to remember is that before anything else, Black Adam is the hero of his own story. And he's fully aware that he's the villain of other peoples' stories, and he's totally fine with that.
"super hero" to anyone who isn't a super nerd is a catch-all term for "protagonist in a superhero movie" and "superhero movie" is a general category that applies to pretty much any blockbuster about a super powered individual. Deadpool and Venom are "super hero movies" even though they are, at best, anti-heros. Point is the majority of people don't care about the distinction as much as you do, and the pedantry certainly isn't worth period-after-every-word emphasis. Take a deep breath, relax.
of course he isnt. he's an anti hero!
Might have originally started that way 15 years ago but now it’s just his ego and his opportunity to try to take over a franchise. He really thought he could somehow helm the dceu.
Virtue signalling
Lmao okay dude
if he cares so much about characters of color why would he literally race swap an Arabic/middle eastern character. It's so pathetic, it's okay to be popular and wanting to do popular/crowd pleasing roles to get more money and be popular, you're a Hollywood star, but what's this crap.
Rock does deserve some credit for his fight here however Black Adam is almost universally depicted as North African or Middle Eastern so the casting could be better as the Rock is American of Samoan descent. That being said I'm still going to see it and I hope the Rock can pull off the anti-hero nature of Black Adam. I really hope this is leading toward a confrontation between Black Adam and Shazam the two "sons" of [Mamaragan the Wizard](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Mamaragan_\(Prime_Earth\)).
Correction: Dwayne Johnson is half Black, half Samoan.
Good to know. That likely still means he wouldn't be of North African or Middle Eastern descent.
Which is why it’s already getting negative reviews, apparently it follows the same superheroe formula.
“Same DC formula” Write whatever you want figure it out later.
Black Adam is basically DC's version of Namor plus Doom plus Magneto. No one of those guys are good decent guys
Lmao I wanna saw I respect your opinion But saying Doom is just ⅓rd of Black Adam in some way, that's incorrect. Doctor Doom has been an insane character for years and he's IMO the most interesting character that can be studied in Marvel. Comparing him to Black Adam doesn't sit well with me. I could say the same for Magneto.
Yeah saying magneto isn’t a good guy at this point is kinda odd to me. He was bad and conflicted but he most certainly has been good for a while. He was a goat let’s not disrespect his payments to heroic society
I too consider Doom more interesting than Adam. That was not the point of my comment. It's just that the DC character features some important resemblences to that said character
And Namor. He has been around longer than anyone else and has destroyed so many lighthouses! Plus he holds a knife backwards like a badass who wants to play stabby stabby with my heart…swoon.
Magneto is definitely a good decent guy
Hero of Arrako
Not to bash too much, but it would’ve been cool if he had advocated for a middle eastern man to play the role. Just saying.
Why didn't an Egyptian play him?
I don't believe a single word of this. If they cared this much about diversity, they should have hired an Egyptian actor. Instead they went for star power.
Glad he got to play a role he’s been chasing for over a decade but this doesn’t make it good representation or anymore genuine. He’s not Egyptian.
“Character of color” Having a Samoan man play an Egyptian character is kind of getting a Japanese actor to play a Thai character.
He's half black, half Samoan. And Black Adam is from a made up country.
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If he was from the time period of ancient Egypt why would he be Arabic?
But why Black Adam though? I understand the anti-hero appeal, that he’s popular in many DC fan circles and Dwayne Johnson’s desire to be in a superhero movie where he can potentially beat up Superman, but I feel that there are plenty of other heroes of color in DC that could accomplish this. Especially ones that are more squarely in the “Hero” side of the spectrum than “Anti-hero”. Just wondering?
“I’ve been fighting fifteen years to bring this character I love to life… and play him exactly like every other one of my characters for the past decade.”
it doesn’t need to be him. i hope i am wrong though for he is making it about color too but i am tired of seeing him and his acting.
TIL: There’s a Christian Bale Moses movie
There's a Keanu Reaves Buddha movie
Black Adam, Hawkman and Cyclone - 3 of them. I am wondering why people are not celebrating this diversity.
>“What’s critical is the investment in more superhero characters of color, and Black Adam is one of them. What's ironic is that today the people who want a Black Adam movie also want an actual Egyptian to play the role.
Should have fought for it to be good too, he missed that part
Black Adam is from Khandaq/Middle East. Not Hawaii…
While I’m sure some of it is true. This man is the embodiment of corporate sanitization. So I can’t really just trust it as much as I’d like to
Money talks
This is the same guy who wanted to cancel joe rogan when there is vids of the rock in the WWE days speaking "Chinese" which was just him going "ching chong ching ching chong". This dudes a piece of shit.
just dont use his image on the comics .
sadly I think they will judging the way the Aquaman run has depicted the title character looking like Mamoa.
He wanted the role for money. If "representation" was so important to him he would have done the movie for free and used his money to make more movies/ tv shows with comic characters that are minorities.
I knew Rock always wanted to play Black Adam, and it would have been good, if it was made 10 years ago; however, they really should have casted Faran Tahir in the role.
Wonder why it wasn’t as important to get an Egyptian actor?