Summary
After the release ofBlack Adamin October 2022 and some praise from audiences, actor Dwayne Johnson was excited to keep working on his years-long passion project and keep expanding on the superhero’s story. But as DC Studios changed leadership and its focus shifted towards other projects, theBlack Adamsequel was dropped from the company’s schedule. Almost a year later, Johnson seems to throw shade at the studio’s exec for taking this decision.
Upon its premiere,Black Adamwas received with mixed reviews. It received an 88 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and earned $391 million globally. The movie delivered the biggest opening of Johnson’s career, yet it was still a box office disappointment for not surpassing its financial expectation. On the other hand, the film was not as well received by critics, who gave it 38 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. While it is still not clear why the sequel was dropped, it might’ve been a mixture ofBlack Adam’s box office failureand the mixed reviews that led to the new leadership of DC Studios, headed by James Gunn and Peter Safran, to make this decision.
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Now, almost a year since the film came out, Johnson is still trying to figure out why theBlack Adamsequel was canceled, but he believes he has found the answer. In a recent appearance in Kevin Heart’sPeacockshowHart to Heart, the comedian asked Johnson how he felt about DC’s decision to halt the story. “Black Adamgot caught in a vortex of new leadership,” the actor explained, “and at the time, as we were creatingBlack Adam, developing it, shootingBlack Adam… it was so many changes in leadership.” Such changes are references to Gunn taking over DC Studios in October 2022.
Johnson explained that when companies with such a large magnitude and power like DC undergo a leadership change, it is difficult to agree with all the new fiscal and creative decisions. Johnson emphasized leadership is one of the main reasons why theBlack Adamproject is not happening and that it being dropped “will always be one of the biggest mysteries.” The actor also explained how it bothered him that theBlack Adamsequel was not considered based on an audience’s point of view but rather from a financial one. “When you think about opportunity and creating opportunity and creating things that are fresh and delivering for the audience, which is our number one boss, when that wasn’t looked at through that lens, it makes things a little bit more challenging,” the actor said.
This is not Johnson’s first public disagreement with Gunn’s decision. Earlier this year, Johnson was asked to comment on DC’s decision torecast Henry Cavill’s Supermandespite his return inBlack Adam, to which he implied it was a decision akin to throwing out an athlete with proven success. “It’s almost like when you have a pro football team, and your quarterback wins championships, and your head coach wins championships, and then a new owner comes in and says, ‘not my coach, not my quarterback. I’m going to go with somebody new.'”
While aBlack Adamsequel is not in the works, this does not mean the character will be tossed out entirely from the DC universe. In December 2022, when Johnson announced that plans for a sequel had halted, he said, “DC and Seven Bucks have agreed to continue exploring the most valuableways Black Adam can be utilizedin future DC multiverse chapters.” However, appearances of the superhero have yet to be announced in the future of the DC universe.
