Dwayne Johnson Reveals Why The Padding In His Original Black Adam Superhero Suit Didn’t Make The Final Cut

CinemaBlend participates in affiliate programs with various companies. We may earn a commission when you click on or make purchases via links.

Dwayne Johnson is one of the hardest working people in the film world, producing and starring in a number of projects at any given time. But moviegoers are particularly excited to see him in the title role of Black Adam, a project that The Rock has been attached to for quite some time. And Johnson recently revealed why the padding in his original superhero suit didn’t make the final cut.

Every time a comic book character is adapted for the big screen, there’s a ton of conversation around their suit. While we haven’t seen Dwayne Johnson’s full look as Black Adam, we’ve seen some brief images from the mysterious set. And it turns out that The Rock and Jungle Cruise co-star Emily Blunt decided padding his suit was a bad idea, as Johnson tells it:

I wanted to come in in the best shape of my life. I wanted to raise the bar. When we first -- and I sent [Emily Blunt] pictures -- it was funny when we first tried on the first costume that they had made for me. It was padded. Like all the superhero costumes are padded. But when you have padding, it actually takes away from your real body so all this went away. It had this fake padding. It looked so terrible. So we took all the padding away, redesigned the costume.

If there’s one person that doesn’t need any fake muscles, it’s Dwayne Johnson. He’s been open about just how swole he got while filming Black Adam, and it seems that his appearance in the DC blockbuster won’t feature any padding. Can this guy get any more badass?

Dwayne Johnson’s comments to Extra help to peel back the curtain on what it was like bringing Black Adam to life. The Rock only recently wrapped principal photography for his role, and fans are eager to see what the long gestating project will look like. And when we finally get a glimpse of the character, the musculature will be all Rock.

The DCEU has found its streaming home on HBO Max. You can use this link to sign up for the streaming service.

As Dwayne Johnson mentions, it’s quite common for superhero costumes to feature padding. This allows actors some leeway on set, while also getting into shape to play a comic book character. But Johnson didn’t like the look of it on his particular body, adding extra pressure to stay fit throughout Black Adam’s photography.

Anticipation for Black Adam has been steadily growing, especially now that The Rock has wrapped his role as the title character. Fans can’t wait to watch Dwayne Johnson’s character face off against a number of heroes including Atom Smasher, Hawkman, Doctor Fate, and Cyclone. There’s some all-star cast attached, including names like Pierce Brosnan and Aldis Hodge.

Black Adam is currently expected to arrive in theaters on July 29th, 2022. In the meantime, check out the 2021 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.

Corey Chichizola
Movies Editor

Corey was born and raised in New Jersey. Graduated with degrees theater and literature from Ramapo College of New Jersey. After working in administrative theater for a year in New York, he started as the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. He's since been able to work himself up to reviews, phoners, and press junkets-- and is now able to appear on camera with some of his favorite actors... just not as he would have predicted as a kid. He's particularly proud of covering horror franchises like Scream and Halloween, as well as movie musicals like West Side Story. Favorite interviews include Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.