Why did Dwayne Johnson have to wait for so many years to make Black Adam?

After its world premiere on October 3, 2022, in Mexico City, fans finally saw Dwayne Johnson portray the iconic DC Comics character Black Adam. The movie garnered positive reviews, but the film had to wait 15 years due to multiple reschedules.

The idea of Black Adam appearing on the big screen started in the early 2000s as the antagonist of the wizard, Shazam. In 2006, Peter Segal signed on to direct Shazam and asked The Rock to play the superhero character. However, Dwayne was also interested in the antihero after learning about him in November 2007.

The movie's development was put on hold in 2009 but resumed in 2014. Rock confirmed he would portray Black Adam in September of that same year. Due to Dwayne Johnson's profile, it was also decided that Shazam and Adam would star in separate movies.

After Adam Sztykiel finished drafting the script in 2018, Johnson announced that filming would begin by the end of 2019 due to his roles in Jumanji: The Next Level and Red Notice.

Black Adam became a priority after Shazam's success. Dwayne announced again in October 2019 that filming would begin in July 2020, and the scheduled release date was on December 22, 2021. Unfortunately, filming was delayed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The filming, which was supposed to take place on April 2020, began the following year. Due to this, the release date has been moved to July 2022. However, this was adjusted once again due to the impact of COVID-19 on the workload of visual effects vendors. The movie was given a final release date of October 21, 2022.

Aside from Dwayne Johnson, stars like Sarah Shahi, Noah Centineo, Pierce Brosnan, and more are also set to appear in the film.

Dwayne Johnson fought for Black Adam for 15 years

Although the antihero film took more than a decade to come out to theaters, the former WWE Champion's determination didn't decrease and he continued backing the movie.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Dwayne shared that he felt humbled when he saw himself in his suit after 15 years of fighting for the movie.

"I had a moment before I walked out of my trailer, I just took a look in the mirror, it was a very humbling moment. Because, I fought so hard for this movie, to get this movie made and keep it on track. 15 long years and here we are." [0:42 - 0:54]

Dwayne Johnson has tackled different roles in different movies. But from the looks of it, Black Adam would be his most special and memorable one yet.

If any quotes were used from this article, credit The Hollywood Reporter and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription