Dwayne Johnson Says Dropping Black Adam Will ‘Always Be One of the Biggest Mysteries’: ‘It Got Caught in a Vortex of New Leadership’
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director Dwayne Jonson appeared on a new episode of Kevin Hart’s “Hart to Hart” talk show on Peacock (recorded prior to the strike, of course) and looked back at the rise and fall of “Black Adam.” His 2022 comic book tentpole was designed to launch a new chapter of storytelling within Warner Bros.’ DC Universe (the film ended with Henry Cavill’s return as Superman, and the franchise intended to build up to a face off between Johnson and Cavill), but DC Studios was overhauled soon after its release, with new leaders James Gunn and Peter Safran taking the reins.
Johnson announced in December that “Black Adam 2” was not moving forward for now. “‘Black Adam’ got caught in a vortex of new leadership,” Johnson said when Hart asked how it felt for franchise to be stopped. “It was so many changes in leadership.
Anytime you have a company, a publicly traded company, and you have all those changes in leadership, you have people coming in who, creatively and fiscally, are going to make decisions that you may not agree with.” Johnson stressed that his “Black Adam” franchise got “caught in the web of new leadership,” but he still doesn’t completely understand why the character got dropped given what he views as the film’s multiple success points. “That will always be one of the biggest mysteries,” Johnson said. “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.
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