Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson was cast as the infamous DC anti-hero ‘Black Adam’ in 2014, but pre-production has only started to pick up this year, with Jaume Collet-Serra coming on board as director after working with The Rock on Disney’s Jungle Cruise. The comic-book movie will follow the super-powered Black Adam returning to his home country of Kahndaq to overthrow its tyrannical leaders and claim the throne.
Aldis Hodge is set to play Carter Hall AKA Hawkman, a legend of DC Comics and prolific member of the superhero team ‘The Justice Society of America’. The JSA will be a major foil to Adam’s destruction with Hodge joining Noah Centineo’s Atom Smasher and yet to be cast comic-book heavyweights Doctor Fate and Cyclone rounding out the team.
In the comics, Hawkman is a mace wielding Ancient Egyptian hero with the ability to fly, repeatedly reincarnated (along with his wife Hawkgirl) as different people throughout history, until he is reborn as archaeologist Carter Hall in the present day. Hodge will be the first African-American actor to take on the role, previously portrayed on the small screen by Michael Shanks and Falk Hentschel respectively.
News of Hodge’s casting was met with praise on social media with many glad to see him bagging a leading role after his performances in The Invisible Man and Hidden Figures (2016). Others were disappointed to see a ‘comic-inaccurate’ actor chosen to play the role of Hawkman, a character that is often portrayed as a white man. It would do those ‘fans’ a world of good to remind themselves that Carter Hall is both an Egyptian character and one that has been reincarnated as every race and ethnicity under the sun throughout comic-book history.
Black Adam currently has a very short window to shoot, set to film in early 2021 with a December 2021 release date planned. Casting news for Doctor Fate, Cyclone and more can be expected soon.
Featured Image: DC Comics, Wikimedia