Dwayne Johnson spent a decade-and-a-half trying to get Black Adam off the ground. Little did he know it would arrive at a fateful time: When it dropped in late October, it had to prove whether the DCEU, as it was run up till then, was worth preserving. The answer was clearly no. Black Adam underperformed slightly but just enough to have new DCEU heads James Gunn and Peter Safran do a massive, already controversial overhaul. Details are still forthcoming, but already Johnson’s semi-superhero is not a part of it — for now.
Black Adam⚡️ pic.twitter.com/b7ZbCJZxBw
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) December 20, 2022
As caught by The Hollywood Reporter, Johnson took to Twitter (another place going through massive, unsettling changes), where he announced that Black Adam 2 ain’t happening any time soon.
“James Gunn and I connected, and Black Adam will not be in their first chapter of storytelling,” Johnson wrote. “However, DC and Seven Bucks have agreed to continue exploring the most valuable ways Black Adam can be utilized in future DC multiverse chapters.”
Johnson’s post was conciliatory and cautiously hopeful, filled with praise for Gunn and Safran, whom he emphatically wished well. It was also bittersweet. He noted that he’d spent 15 years of “relentless hard work” to make Black Adam, noting that even if it helped decide the fate of the DCEU, the “fan reaction” proves they “did great.”
Gunn and Safran have made some brash, shocking decisions as they prepare a new path for the DCEU, but they haven’t burned bridges. They may have ended Henry Cavill’s reign as Superman, but they want to at least keep him around. Aquaman may be on the chopping block, too, but that doesn’t mean star Jason Momoa won’t be reassigned as a different superhero. Black Adam, though, they may simply bring back. In other words, it’s not good, but it could be worse.
(Via THR)
