"Unite The Seven" is the tagline overlaid on the recent revelation of Jason Mamoa’s Aquaman poster. Immediately, “seven” was pertained to have two implications: It could be “seven seas” seeing that Aquaman is king of the oceans; or the uniting of the seven members of the Justice League. The former is unlikely because what exactly have the seven seas got to do with Batman and Superman or Justice League movies anyway? In short, categorically nothing. Therefore, I think it is safe to conjecture that it refers to seven individual heroes uniting to form a team – The Justice League.
So, now that we can comfortably agree that we are likely to see seven individuals comprise the Justice League, who exactly are they? We already know the answer to 6 with the 7th being a mystery:
One would not be remiss for thinking that Green Lantern is number 7, after all Green Lantern is one of the initial members of the team in the comics and animated series. The question is, is it Hal Jordan or John Stewart? Well, before we can even start speculating on that, we have to look at a few facts.
Fact#1: We know for certain that there are 6 actors cast in the roles of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash and Cyborg.
Fact#2: It was never announced that Green Lantern would make an appearance or cameo in
Batman v Superman.
Fact#3: No actor has been cast or recast as Green Lantern. Actor Dan Amboyer is listed as playing a drone pilot in Batman v Superman. This perked the interest of many fans, leading them to assume that “drone pilot” meant Hal Jordan. It has to be queried how exactly does Hal Jordan get downgraded to a drone pilot? A drone is an unmanned, remote-controlled aerial vehicle. Hal Jordan is the type of guy to be in the hot seat, so why waste his talents by demoting him to drone pilot? I am more inclined to believe that the actor is more likely playing Steve Trevor than Hal Jordan. Perhaps an unmanned drone accidently uncovers Thermiscyrae? Citing the role as “drone pilot” could simply be a way of not purposefully implying that he is really Hal Jordan so that the final revelation will be a surprise. If that is the case, then why not describe this character as merely “air force personnel” since we already know the military is going have some presence in the movie. Furthermore, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman have all been disclosed as being in the Justice League movies, so why is it so necessary to not do the same for Green Lantern? What is so important that Green Lantern be kept hidden?
Fact#4: Dwayne Johnson is going to play Black Adam.
A Shazam movie is slated for release in 2019. Dwayne Johnson already started to tease in 2013 that he would be playing a DC character. We finally got to know in 2014 that that character is Black Adam. Dwayne Johnson is a heavy hitter and a major box office draw. Whoever lands up playing the adult Shazam, regardless of their acting ability, is going to be overshadowed by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Moreover, I can argue that adult Shazam is more likely going to be a supporting role with Billy Batson bringing a lot of emotion and humanity to the project. In order to understand how young Billy Batson gets the power of Shazam, we have to take an in-depth look at Black Adam’s story and his downfall.
A Shazam movie will need to focus heavily on Black Adam’s origin, much more so than with any villains we have seen in previous comic book movies. You don’t get Billy Batson as the protagonist without Black Adam. This means a lot of screen time for Dwayne Johnson and is one explanation for having the him play the role. And, as stated above, the adult Shazam will more than likely be a supporting role. You don’t make an investment with Dwayne Johnson and then give him a minor role to play in DC’s movie universe. In fact, one could make the argument that
Shazam will be more of a Black Adam movie than Billy Batson/adult Shazam.
The confirmation that Dwayne Johnson is playing Black Adam correlates much more timeously with
Batman v Superman and the
Justice League movies than it does with a Shazam movie.
The Green Lantern reboot(?) is listed for release in 2020. I have to query why place Green Lantern in the Justice League line-up only for his solo movie to follow in 2020? And remember, the Shazam movie is expected in 2019, one year before a new Green Lantern movie whilst Wonder Woman will get a solo outing in 2017 and The Flash movie is set for 2018. It makes more sense in terms of this time-line (and the fact that it is Dwayne Johnson in the role) to expect Black Adam much sooner than 2019. And now, Dwayne Johnson does actually indicate that this could very well be the case:
I am aware that Black Adam is by far an unconventional inclusion for the Justice League roster. But there are various comic book movies that are not going the typical route: namely with
Avengers: Age of Ultron, where the titular villain will not be created by Hank Pym as he is in the comics, but rather by Tony Stark. Nonetheless, bringing Dwayne Johnson on-board at this juncture as a member of the Justice League not only strengthens the cast in terms of overall appeal, but also makes for interesting new angles to explore. It would be very interesting for Black Adam to join the Justice League as a founding member only to have a fallout with the rest of the team resulting in some kind of showdown between them at some point. Seriously, who does not want to see Superman take on Black Adam? This dynamic could easily lead directly into the Shazam movie with Black Adam being the “bad guy turned anti-hero” claimed by Dwayne Johnson.
If the planetary threat in the Justice League movies is devastating enough, Black Adam could certainly be someone who steps in and helps. I am not really going to speculate any further as to why and how Black Adam would want to join the Justice League, but I will say that perhaps he finds it somehow in his best interest i.e. in some sort of self-serving purpose. And don’t forget that Black Adam does start out as a hero until he is corrupted by his power. Additionally, in the animated movie based off of writer Geoff John’s NEW 52 Justice League, it is Shazam (in place of Aquaman) who joins the Justice League to fight Darkseid. Shazam and Black Adam are, in essence, the same. So, why not interchange them for a live-action movie?
Black Adam as the 7
th member of the Justice League is controversial, but not inconceivable. Do you think Black Adam would be an incredible inclusion to the Justice League, or should the movie stick with canon and go with Green Lantern?