Despite being heralded as a change in the DC Extended Universe hierarchy, Dwayne Johnson is pouring his heart out on what went wrong with Black Adam. Johnson made his debut as a DC supervillain in the 2022 film, which traces his origins as the father of a slave boy, Kandak, who was granted the powers of Shazam, who used them for revenge and was imprisoned for thousands of years. be released today. After almost a decade of development, Black Adam hit theaters to negative reviews from critics and didn’t even break even at the box office.
During a recent appearance on Kevin Hart’s Heart to Heart talk show, Dwayne Johnson was interviewed about the box office failure of Black Adam and his future as a character. The actor/producer was candid in his analysis of the DC Extended Universe movie, stating that it was caught in a “whirlwind of new leadership” and indicated that his time as a supervillain was over. Here’s what Johnson shared in the quotes and video below:
“I think Black Adam is caught in a whirlwind of new leadership. And while we were creating Black Adam, developing it, filming Black Adam, we were a bit held back by COVID and the closure, we pulled ourselves together. There have been so many changes in direction. And, as you know, every time you have a company, especially one of this size and scope, it’s also a publicly traded company, and all these changes in direction, people come in who are going to make creative and financial decisions that you can’t agree. philosophically. This will always be one of the greatest mysteries. You have the biggest discovery of your career. Certainly nothing in China that could bring in another 100 or 200 million dollars. You have a superhero and you want to develop a franchise. You bring back Superman and Henry Cavill, who the world went crazy with. And we’ve built a diverse portfolio of superheroes with men and women of color in Black Adam. So I think Black Adam was one of those films that got caught in the web of new leadership. But ultimately, the thing is, a new owner comes along and buys an NFL team and says, “OK, that’s not my coach, that’s not my quarterback. No matter how many times you win the Super Bowl, no matter how many rings we have, I’ll go with someone else.”
The original Black Adam looked like it would open up a number of exciting new directions for the DC Extended Universe, most notably the return of Henry Cavill as Superman for a powerful showdown with the anti-hero Johnson, but that idea was abandoned after the film’s release. unsuccessful. Johnson and his producing partner Dany Garcia seemed very positive about their potential future in the franchise, hinting at the development of a sequel ahead of the first film’s release, which would lead to a third Superman battle. However, with the announcement that James Gunn and Peter Safran would become CEOs of DC Studios and embark on a new path known as the DC Universe, those plans were put on hold forever.
Curiously, Johnson previously indicated that despite the cancellation of Black Adam 2, he is in talks with Gunn and Safran to find another way to remain part of the DC Universe, which could be as a new character or as a sequel within the context of the Elseworlds label, which , as Gann confirmed, will exist. Thus, confirmation by a star/producer that his time in the franchise has come to an end may indicate that these negotiations were not successful for either side. Given that Gunn, according to Gal Gadot, seems to want to reboot almost everything except Wonder Woman 3, there might not be enough room for Johnson’s ideas.
While Black Adam marked Johnson’s brief stint in the DC Extended Universe, he still has a lot of plans for the near future. Johnson recently reconciled with Vin Diesel to return to the Fast and Furious franchise for both the Fast and Furious post-credits scenes and the spin-off, and is also working with Disney on a live-action remake of Moana and with Netflix on sequels to Red. notifications.” Also, given that he already had talks with Kevin Feige, it will be interesting to see if he returns to the superhero genre in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.