After a few hours of Dwayne Johnson confirming that he is playing Black Adam in the upcoming “Shazam” movie, New Line President Toby Emmerich talked to EW:

“It feels to me like Shazam will have a tone unto itself, It’s a DC comic, but it’s not a Justice League character, and it’s not a Marvel comic. The tone and the feeling of the movie will be different from the other range of comic book movies […] It will have a sense of fun and a sense of humor. But the stakes have to be real […] Black Adam is a complex character, the villain in superhero movies is often, I think, what makes the movie. And I thought Dwayne’s take on the character, and the way that he saw Black Adam, was really compelling and fun.”

Emmerich is talking about tone, but saying that the hero isn’t a Justice League character makes us wonder. Won’t he share the same universe as Superman, Batman and the new team? Maybe he just misspoke and a clarification is on its way. But the fact that is a division like New Line and not Warner Bros. who will produce and release the film also marks a division between projects. Because of Blade, now this is the first label that will handle both a DC and a Marvel property.

If that is actually the case, I would be very curious to know why. Yes, there is a strong degree of fantasy and not science fiction in these characters’ origins, but nothing that a good set of writers couldn’t change to make it fit. If an Amazonian princess and an underwater warrior can coexist with a Kryptonian, everything goes. Something like “Sandman” and an eventual “Dark Justice League” were expected to be separate, but not Shazam.

In the same piece it is mentioned that writer Darren Lemke, who previously worked on New Line’s Jack the Giant Slayer, has been hired. Let’s hope that this one turns out more super than Bryan Singer’s stinker.