Black Adam, the 2022 film that introduced Dwayne Johnson as the DC antihero, failed to meet the expectations of both critics and audiences. The film had been in development for nearly 10 years and explored the origin story of Black Adam.
Johnson’s character was a former slave from Kahndaq who received the powers of Shazam but used them for revenge and was imprisoned for millennia. Upon his release in the present day, he faced new challenges and enemies.
Despite being hyped as a game-changer for the DCEU, Black Adam received negative reviews from critics and did not regain its production budget at the box office. Actor Dwayne Johnson, who hailed the project as his dream project, recently shared his insights on what went wrong with the film.
Dwayne Johnson opened up about the disappointing performance of Black Adam, his DCEU debut film, in a candid interview with Kevin Hart on his Hart to Heart talk show.
The actor had been attached to the role of the DC antihero for nearly a decade, admitted that the film faced several challenges due to “a vortex of new leadership”. He also hinted that he might not reprise his role in the future. Here are some excerpts from Johnson’s conversation with Hart:
I think that Black Adam got caught in a vortex of new leadership. And at that time, as we were creating Black Adam, developing it, shooting Black Adam, we got knocked down a little bit because of COVID and the shutdowns, got back up. There were so many changes in leadership. And as you know, any time you have a company, but especially that size and magnitude, that’s a publicly traded company, and you have all those changes in leadership, you have people coming in who creatively, fiscally are going to make decisions that you may not agree with philosophically. That will always be one of the biggest mysteries. You have the biggest opening of your career. Sure, no China, which could’ve been maybe 100 or 200 million more dollars. You have a superhero and you want to grow out the franchise. You bring back Superman and Henry Cavill, which the world went crazy. And we created a diverse superhero portfolio, where we have just men and women of color in Black Adam. So I think Black Adam was one of those movies that got caught in that web of new leadership. But hey, at the end of the day, you know what it is? It’s like new ownership coming in, buying an NFL team and going, “All right, not my head coach, not my quarterback. Doesn’t matter how many times you won a Super Bowl, doesn’t matter how many rings we got, I’m going with somebody else.
Black Adam had ambitious plans to expand the franchise in new directions, including a showdown with Henry Cavill’s Superman. Johnson and his producer Dany Garcia had expressed their enthusiasm for the future in the DCEU, revealing that they were developing a sequel that would lead to a third film featuring the Superman fight.
However, these plans were affected by the changes in the DC Studios’ leadership, as James Gunn and Peter Safran took over the new CEOs and launched a new vision for the franchise, renaming it as the DC Universe (DCU).
Johnson had previously hinted that he was exploring other options to remain involved in the DCU, despite the cancellation of Black Adam 2. He had suggested that he was in discussions with Gunn and Safran about either making the sequel an Elseworlds story, as confirmed by Gunn, or playing a different character.
However, Johnson’s latest statement seems to indicate that these talks did not result in any concrete agreement for either side. Given that Gunn is planning to reboot almost everything in the DCU, except for Wonder Woman 3 as revealed by Gadot, it may be difficult for Johnson’s ideas to fit in.
Johnson’s stint as Black Adam in the DCEU may have been brief, but he has many other projects lined up for the near future. Johnson recently patched things up with Vin Diesel and agreed to return to the Fast and the Furious franchise for a post-credits scene in Fast X and a new spinoff movie.
He is also collaborating with Disney for a live-action remake of Moana and with Netflix for two sequels to Red Notice. Moreover, Johnson may have another chance to join the superhero genre with the MCU, as he had previously talked with Kevin Feige about a possible role.
About Black Adam
Black Adam is an upcoming American superhero film based on the DC Comics fictional supervillain, directed by Jaume Collett-Serra. It is a spinoff of the 2019 movie Shazam!, and the 11th film in the DCEU franchise.
Black Adam is the antihero to Shazam and possesses the same powers as the white-caped superhero. But after being imprisoned for 5000 years, he is finally free, and now, the Justice Society of America, a team of superheroes, must stop him before he fulfills his mission to wreak havoc on the world that rejected him.
The film stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Black Adam, and joining him are cast members Noah Centineo, Aldis Hodge, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell, Pierce Brosnan, and Viola Davis.
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