Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam will reportedly not appear in the planned Shazam! film. The actor has been confirmed for the role since 2014, and was originally supposed to have a significant part in the upcoming DC Extended Universe project but it appears that with the various change in production and narrative plans for films in the shared cinematic universe, Shazam is heading in a different direction without the villanous character.

Shazam was one of several titles that were put on the Warner Bros. docket for DCEU's announced slate through 2020. The schedule has had some changes over the last couple of months with properties moving around and films getting reworked, but with the reveal earlier this year that filmmaker David F. Sandberg is up to helm the project, development for the film seems to be moving along quietly.

That said, official information on the film is still rather thin with no official casting or synopsis introduced. The supposedly new scoop came from a Twitter conversation between The Wrap's Umberto Gonzales and Variety's Justin Kroll -- who implied that Black Adam will not be in the Shazam film. This is backed up by Gonzales, who even supplemented that when Sandberg was announced to direct, he was specifically instructed to "take off Dwayne in the report."

This intel comes on the heels of an earlier scoop by Gonzalez about the movie's production being fast-tracked -- now reportedly having a start date of February 2018. This could imply that Shazam might be one of the two DCEU films penciled in for a 2020 roll out.

If this is the case, the movie will be more or less a year delayed from its supposed April of 2019 release date. Back in January, DC and New Line Cinema (who will produce the film) shared that the Shazam film will be developed as two films instead of just a single project -- attaching the Black Adam-centric movie for a 2-in-1 combination. However, this newest development appears to have scratched the plan altogether with no new details regarding what would happen to Johnson's supposed solo film and who would be the main antagonist in Shazam.

If all of these new rumors eventually come to fruition, fans can expect that more official details regarding the Shazam! film will be made in the next couple of months. Warner Bros. and DC are also hosting a panel in Comic-Con International later this week, which gives them the perfect venue to announce details about their upcoming projects. While movies like Justice League and Aquaman will no doubt be the the highlights of the event, it would not hurt to keep the DCEU ball rolling by revealing new plans for the future of the franchise.

Next: Shazam Movie Rumored To Begin Production in Early 2018 [Updated]

Source: Umberto Gonzalez