Pierce Brosnan destined to play Dr. Fate in Dwayne Johnson’s upcoming Black Adam film

A former James Bond actor is making his debut in the world of superhero cinema. Pierce Brosnan will join the cast of the upcoming Black Adam movie. Per The Hollywood Reporter, which first broke the news, the erstwhile Bond will play Dr. Fate opposite Dwayne Johnson in the upcoming DCEU film.

Brosnan joins a cast that includes Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, and of course Johnson in the lead role of the antihero Black Adam.

Brosnan played Special Agent 007 in four Bond films from 1995 to 2002 (GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough, and Die Another Day). He was succeeded in the role by Daniel Craig, who’s set to appear in the 25th canonical film in the Bond series, No Time to Die (which will be released...sometime this year, we hear). 

Kent Nelson, aka Dr. Fate, is the son of an archeologist who was taught sorcery and given the magical Helmet of Fate. Created by Gardner Fox and Howard Sherman and originally appearing in More Fun Comics #5 in 1940, Dr. Fate is one of DC’s oldest characters.

Warner Bros./DC

Originally designed to be Billy Batson's archenemy but later developed to be more of a conflicted antihero, Black Adam almost appeared in 2019’s Shazam! before it was decided that he should appear in his own standalone film. A follow-up/spinoff to 2019's Shazam!, Black Adam centers on an ancient Egyptian who was granted the power of Shazam but used it for his own means. As a result, he was imprisoned for millennia. Now freed and ready to once again wield his awesome power, he's got the Justice Society (of which Dr. Fate is a member) to contend with.

Written by Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Black Adam has been very long in development (and later delayed due to COVID) but is finally approaching production. The film is set to film in Atlanta next month, but doesn't currently have a planned release date.