These days, it is pretty obvious what kind of hero Dwayne Johnson will play when you watch one of his movies: a powerful, impressively built good guy. The retired professional wrestler, however, did not have a role like that in Jaume Collet-Serra’s Black Adam.
Johnson, who earlier attained the pinnacle of the wrestling industry, undoubtedly rose to fame as one of Hollywood’s most prominent actors. Last year, we saw the 51-year-old actor become part of the DCU with his superhero film, Black Adam, which is based on the DC character of the same name.
Well, despite the Black Adam backlash, Johnson has demanded that James Gunn’s DC Extended Universe break free from the clutches of Marvel.
Dwayne Johnson’s Demand From James Gunn’s DCU
Hollywood’s heavyweight, Dwayne Johnson has become one of the industry’s most successful actors after dominating the world of professional entertainment wrestling. He has just joined the DC Universe with his last year’s release, Black Adam.
The actor stated in a New York Times interview (2022):
“It’s a unique time in the superhero genre, where there’s the introduction of fresh blood and new characters on both sides of the aisle — at Marvel and certainly at DC. And the launching of Black Adam is converging with a time where they are also bringing in new leadership at Warner Bros., and new leadership on the DC side is soon to be coming in.”
But the box office results were disappointing. Despite Black Adam receiving criticism for being “repetitive” and “anti-entertaining”, Johnson expressed his confidence in the direction that DC movies are headed in.
According to the 51-year-old actor:
“I feel very confident about the direction of the DC universe. It is going to require real strategy and real leadership. And that requires us not to look at Marvel’s success and say, let’s follow that blueprint. That’s Marvel. I’m very happy for them. We don’t want to be Marvel, in my opinion. We want to be DC, and we want to do it our way.”
He further added:
“I have been saying for some time, there’s a new era in the DC Universe that’s about to begin. What I really meant by, ‘This is a new era in the DC Universe,’ is listening to the fans. And doing our best to give the fans what they want.”
Do DCU’s Future Plans Include Dwayne Johnson?
Dwayne Johnson, star of Black Adam, has reportedly criticized Warner Bros. for kicking him out of DC in favor of focusing on James Gunn‘s reboot.
Following Gunn’s acquisition of the DC Studios, and just two months after the theatrical release of Black Adam, Johnson declared that his character would “not be in [the] first chapter” of the new DC Universe. Thus ending his franchise’s existence for the time being.
Over the past year, Johnson has been vocal in his criticism of Warner Bros., particularly in relation to how it handled Henry Cavill’s Superman. The actor was recently asked by Kevin Hart on the Hart to Heart talk show why he would not be playing Black Adam again in the DC Universe.
The Fast X actor observed how Warner Bros. underwent “so many changes in leadership” throughout the creation and release of Black Adam, which led to his DC character becoming enmeshed “in a vortex of new leadership.”
“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 Ada’, we got knocked down a little bit because of COVID and the shutdowns, got back up, there were so many changes in leadership.”
The actor referred to the decision to shelve further Black Adam projects as “one of the biggest mysteries” for him, the crew, and the entire industry:
“So I think ‘Black Adam’ was one of those movies that got caught in that web of new leadership, and that will always be one of the biggest mysteries, not only for me and us on our end, but also throughout our business.”
For the unversed, Black Adam was hailed as a box office bomb for failing to break even despite receiving mixed reviews and grossing $393 million globally.
You can stream Black Adam now on Max.
Source- NY Times; The Direct
