Dwayne Johnson made his DC debut last year in Black Adam which he promised would change the hierarchy of power in the DC universe. While it was the biggest opening weekend of his career, the film didn't end up becoming a huge box-office success overall.
As a result of the film's disappointing results, any plans for sequel or crossover events with the other DCEU characters were canceled and the actor is not expected to continue playing the role in the new DCU under James Gunn and Peter Safran.
It was also the beginning of a series of flops for the DC franchise as the subsequent movies that were released after also ended up becoming box office disappointments.
There is no doubt at this point that the underwhelming performance of Black Adam was a huge misstep in Johnson's career and he himself has publicly reflected on its aftermath in an ambiguous social media post.
Dwayne Johnson Opens Up About the Failure of Black Adam
In his recent appearance at Kevin Hart's talk show Hart to Heart (via Heroic Hollywood), Johnson was asked by the comedian about the failure of Black Adam. He blamed it on being caught in the new leadership of the franchise, which is now under Gunn and Safran's DC Studios.
"Black Adam got caught in a vortex of new leadership. It was so many changes in leadership," he explained.
"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 continued by calling the film's failure and the cancellation of his future stints in the role "one of the biggest mysteries" despite being the most successful opening of his career and the celebrated return of Henry Cavill's Superman.
"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," he said.
"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."
He added, "It’s like new ownership coming in and buying an NFL team and going, ‘Not my coach, not my quarterback.’ It doesn’t matter how many times you won the Super Bowl or how many rings you got, you’re going with somebody else."
While Gunn and Safran's taking over the DC franchise may have factored in the end of Johnson's tenure as Black Adam as he claimed, it should also be pointed out that the duo is still bringing back some of the actors from the DCEU that have successful films or TV shows in their plate.
Also Read: Gal Gadot Confirms DCU Return as Wonder Woman
You can argue that if Black Adam was a huge success, Gunn and Safran may still have found a way to include Johnson in their plans for the new franchise. However, since the film did not do well financially, there wasn't any strong consideration at all to keep Johnson as part of the DC family.
Black Adam is available to stream on Max.
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