Watch Dwayne Johnson as a superhero in ‘Black Adam’ trailer

Dwayne Johnson’s turn as a superhero has been long-awaited. “Black Adam” has been in development for years, with DC finally releasing its trailer today.

On Tuesday, The Rock started teasing the trailer. He shared the film’s official poster and a clip of himself discussing the press and his special guests’ reactions to the trailer. “They just saw the “Black Adam” trailer and I think they really liked it,” he said. Then, the next day, he shared the trailer with his followers. “Your unwavering support and relentless excitement for this passion project of mine has meant the world to me. Now it’s my turn to deliver for you. The hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is changing,” he captioned it.

The trailer teases out the film’s story, centered on Teth-Adam (Johnson), an extraterrestrial being who was kept a slave for 5,000 years. After he’s reborn in the modern world, Adam is out for revenge, with different factions wanting to have an influence on his power. “You have two choices. You can be the destroyer of this world, or you can be its savior,” says a voiceover in the trailer.

The film is a spin-off of “Shazam,” another DC film that had great success and starred Zachary Quinto. “Black Adam’s” trailer shows the film’s dark subject matter yet still features a few comedic beats.

In 2019, Johnson spoke about his role and how it was something unlike anything else he’d done in his career. “As a kid, Superman was the hero I always wanted to be. But, a few years into my fantasy, I realized that Superman was the hero, I could never be. I was too rebellious. Too rambunctious. Too resistant to convention and authority,” he wrote on Instagram. Speaking of the character of Adam, he said, “He’s a rebellious, one-of-a-kind superhero, who’ll always do what’s right for the people -- but he does it his way.“

“Black Adam” is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, a Spanish-American director who’s worked with Johnson in the past. The film co-stars Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo and Sarah Shahi and premieres in theaters this October 21.