Rumor: Black Adam To Race-Bend The Red-Headed Cyclone

JB Augustine |

Oct 23, 2020

Warner Bros. and Dwayne Johnson are stopping at nothing to inject as much diversity into Black Adam as they can.

Hawkman, played by Aldis Hodge, was announced as race-swapped to Black for the film, and rumor has it Ma “Red Tornado” Hunkel will heavily lean into Golden Age aspects of the character and be considered a transperson.

Black Adam - Justice Society of America

A new scoop from The Illuminerdi suggests it won’t end there. They report the search for Red Tornado grandchild Maxine, aka Cyclone, has narrowed to two young, fairly inexperienced actresses.

Cyclone_Maxine_Hunkel

They are Transformers: The Last Knight star and live-action Dora the Explorer Isabela Moner and newcomer singer/actress Leslie Grace.

Illuminerdi says WB is looking for an “Alexandra Shipp-type,” the actress who played a young Storm in the last decade of X-Men movies. Quite the departure for a character depicted as a redhead.

Grace and Moner have almost nothing in common with Shipp except for the fact they have ethnic backgrounds. Leslie Grace is Dominican-American and Isabela Moner is half Peruvian.

Moner’s credits include Transformers, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, and Sicario: Day of the Soldado. Some pretty big blockbusters but she is still only 19 and looks like a 7th grader, far from the college-age maturity of Maxine Hunkel.

Leslie Grace might be a better fit; she is in her twenties. Unfortunately, she has no filmography to her name until her debut In the Heights comes out. Other than that she is an award-winning musician and spokesperson for Colgate.

She’d have to prove herself as Cyclone and as someone who can help carry a comic-book blockbuster. Perhaps she will brush Black Adam’s mouth like Colgate with a knockout blow, but we have to wait and see.

Cyclone is setting up to be a major character in the script. She is the reported love interest of Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) and standing in for Hawkgirl and Stargirl – heavy hitters of the Justice Society.

The almost complete cast includes Sarah Shahi as Isis and Marwan Kenzari (Aladdin) is said to be circling the role of villain and devilish godlike being Sabbac.

Black Adam starts shooting in the spring.