Shazam Canceled, Black Adam Becomes Man of Steel 2 Villain?

Does DC even know what it is doing anymore? There’s one, and only one, thing that is very clear at this moment in time: Warner Bros. is definitely making some massive changes to their DC Extended Universe plans. But they are not giving up on it no matter what. A couple of years ago, the studio announced a huge slate of movies that would take us into 2020. Those plans seem to be more of a general guidelines at this point. At best. With movies being stalled or canceled outright, a new rumor has surfaced that the long discussed appearance ofDwayne “The Rock” Johnsonas the villain Black Adam will not be in aShazam!movie. Instead, he will be the main villain inMan of Steel 2. What does that mean for Shazam and the recently announced Black Adam movie? Nothing good, we can assure you.

As sometimes happens, a leak of information about future DCEU projects made its way ontoReddit, which is where this rumor comes from. This happened earlier in the week as well with another leak that claimed Warner Bros. will be releasing four Batman related movies in 2019. The man or woman responsible for this newMan of Steel 2leak would not reveal how they came across the information because they don’t want to “jeopardize their position,” which implies they are somehow connected to the goings on at Warner Bros. Here is what the mysterious source had to say about it.

“Firstly, Black Adam will be themain villainin Man of Steel 2. The idea was tossed around of possibly making an appearance in the sequel, even if it was only brief. This later evolved into Adam becoming the villain due to the fact WB did not feel confident in the early drafts of the Shazam script and felt as if Dwayne Johnson deserved a bigger project (may be linked to how much they’re paying him). Second, Matthew Vaughn is still talking to Warner about directing the film, however Warner are talking to other directors as well, which may be an attempt to increase pressure on Vaughn’s agent.”

There is a lot going on there. For one,Dwayne Johnsonhas been attached to play Black Adam for a very long time now and in that time, his star power has grown significantly. So Warner Bros. is definitely going to have to shell out to get him in any of these movies. So why waste him as a villain in a movie with a character not nearly as many people care about? It actually makes sense to put him inMan of Steel 2andBlack Adamseems like a good opponent for Superman. You know, because he is insanely strong. This is something that was already teased not all that long ago last Christmas byThe RockandHenry Cavillon Instagram, with both of them having a drink and teasing their eventual meetup in the DCEU.

“Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Black Adam and Superman (@henrycavill). Today we drink like gentleman and come together as friends. We’re excited for what the future brings.#DangerousGentlemen #DCWorldsWillCollide #BlackSavagery #MyExfoliatedBaldHeadAndTattoos #LookHellaSexyInThisLighting”

Also, the mysterious source mentions that Warner Bros. is checking out other directors forMan of Steel 2, but it looks like they still wantKingsmandirectorMatthew Vaughnto helm the movie. So much so that they are apparently only looking at other directors to apply some pressure. For years, the plan has been forDwayne Johnsonto appear as Black Adam in aShazammovie, but the other part of this leak states that probably won’t be the case. In fact, according to this source, the movie is probably scrapped.

“Lastly, some bad news, Shazam is practically off the table at this point. Warner did not feel confident in the first drafts of the script and is much more interested in Black Adam, as I said earlier. Despite this, it is likely that Billy Batson will appear in a film. To what degree? I don’t know.”

Not long agoThe Rockannounced that the plan was to do aBlack Adamsolo movie and aShazammovie. If this leak is true, it is hard to know if thatBlack Adammovie will still happen before or afterMan of Steel 2, but either way, it looks like Warner Bros. wants to keepDwayne Johnsonin the DCEU with or without aShazammovie.