Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was poised to make Black Adam the most important character in the DCEU. So what happened? Well, a large number of factors came together. James Gunn and Peter Safran took over as co-CEOs of DC Studios, and then the first Black Adam came out and didn’t perform as expected; fans weren’t all that familiar with the character.
Recently, Johnson appeared on Hart To Heart, Kevin Hart’s talk show. In his words, the problems on Black Adam, were the result of getting “caught in a vortex of new leadership.”
He added…
At that time, as we were creating Black Adam, developing it, shooting Black Adam … it was so many changes in leadership. And as you know, anytime 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 and fiscally, are going to make decisions that you may not agree with.
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The way Johnson had been planning things, Black Adam and Superman would have teamed up and then spearheaded a new direction for DC’s movies. But, he claims, the plans for Black Adam 2 then got “caught in that web of new leadership,” [meaning Gunn and Safran]. He also said how this budding franchise wound up flaming out after just one movie will “always be one of the biggest mysteries.”
The first (and likely only) Black Adam is currently streaming on Max. Hart to Heart is available on Peacock.
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