Aldis Hodge is on one Helluva roll. Following standout performances in Clemency, Brian Banks, The Invisible Man, and Regina King’s One Night in Miami, Hodge just landed his biggest movie yet, and it’ll find him going toe-to-toe with Dwayne Johnson in Black Adam.
Deadline reports Hodge has joined the cast of DCEU film Black Adam, taking on the role of Justice Society of America member Hawkman. He joins Johnson, who will play the titular arch-nemesis to Shazam, and Noah Centineo as the super-strong Atom Smasher. It’s expected that Hodge will play the Carter Hall version of the character, but honestly, the Hawkman backstory, which involves a lot of reincarnation, is so screwed up it doesn’t really matter. It’ll take some cleanup and streamlining to work on the big screen.
Black Adam is expected to be a major piece of the DCEU puzzle going forward, as anyone would expect with a superstar like Dwayne Johnson fronting it. An eventual crossover with Shazam is in the cards, for sure, and maybe even a JSA movie coming out of this?
I’ve been a big fan of Hodge’s for a long time, ever since he broke out with his role as MC Ren in Straight Outta Compton. His performance in Brian Banks was quietly one of 2019’s strongest, and he’s just been consistently great and long overdue for a role like this.
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Black Adam opens December 22nd 2021.
