Quad Dog said:
Having thought about it more, having Black Adam as Superman's enemy in the next movie seems like a mistake. You're telling me the best they could do for their tent-pole character was to face him against the unknown villain (Black Adam) of a lesser known hero (Shazam)?
I think this is what happened.
DC has long wanted to be in business with The Rock. (Wouldn't surprise me if Marvel did too). But due to his look and size, he can't play just anyone.
For whatever reason, DC decided on Shazam for him. I've barely heard of Shazam, I don't know anything about him or Black Adam, but DC offered him the choice of either character and he chose the latter. (
This is not speculation, this is what actually happened).
I would guess part of the reason for wanting him for either role is because he just looks like them (
especially Black Adam):
So again, I don't know anything about these two guys, but I was reading up on Shazam, and man is this a stupid sounding character. DC doesn't get the benefit of the doubt like Marvel, that they can make any of their properties a hit movie...
I would guess they don't have confidence in Shazam, but they have
a lot of confidence in The Rock. So I think the goal is to simply put him in with their struggling tentpole character no matter what.
This also feeds into more of my complaints with Superman. I know a lot of people like him and he's iconic, but I think he's boring and doesn't have nearly as great of villains as Batman.
Doomsday is just a bland destruction monster with no motivation... Who else is there after Lex Luthor, Zod and Darkseid? The only person I can even think of is Brainiac, and he's a weird robot alien thing, and Ultron has already kind of done that.
Basically, they don't have anyone else to use, and The Rock is the most important piece to solving their problem(s).