New Line's Black Adam Adds Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher!

New Line’s Black Adam Adds Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher!

Though production may still currently be on halt for the long-in-development Black Adam film starring Dwayne Johnson (Jungle Cruise) in the titular role, the DC Extended Universe project has taken a major step in development and added Noah Centineo (To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before) as Atom Smasher, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Created by Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway and first appearing in JSA Secret Files and Origins #1 in August 1999, Atom Smasher, whose alter ego is Albert Rothstein, is a superhero with the ability to control his molecular structure and is able to manipulate his size and strength and has worked with multiple teams over the years including Justice Society of America, Justice League America and Suicide Squad. Though Black Adam will mark his feature debut, Atom Smasher made his first live-action appearance on The CW’s The Flash portrayed by Adam Copeland in a more villainous take on the character.

Like many other film projects right now, Black Adam‘s production is currently delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has also affected the production of Johnson’s upcoming Netflix film Red Notice with Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot.Centineo will play Atom Smasher, a character who can control his molecular structure and is able to manipulate his size and strength. The character has appeared on screen before, in an episode of The CW’s The Flash.

Dwayne Johnson has been working on Black Adam for 10 years. The character was originally supposed to appear in this year’s Shazam! but decided to save his highly-anticipated debut for a later film in order to let each character get some breathing room. However, despite not appearing in Shazam!, his character was teased with the wizard Shazam, played by Djimon Hounsou (Guardians of the Galaxy), telling his origin story to Billy Batson.

Based on the DC Comics character created by Otto Binder and C.C. Beck, Black Adam will be directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows) with Johnson starring as the titular anti-hero and Adam Sztykiel having written the current script. The film will be the second collaboration between Collet-Serra and Johnson, who have also been working together on Disney’s forthcoming adventure film Jungle Cruise.

The film will be produced by Johnson and FlynnPicturesCo’s Beau Flyn along with Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia of Seven Bucks Productions. Scott Sheldon will be overseeing the project for FlynnPictureCo.

Black Adam is slated to hit theaters on December 22, 2021.

(Photo by Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic)