The Movie World Reacts To The Rock’s ‘Black Adam’ Update

Following days of speculation — especially after Henry Cavill’s exit as Superman was made official — both The Rock and new DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn took to Twitter to address the future of Black Adam.

The most recent and apparently final entry in the DCEU — going forward, it will be referred to as the DCU — Black Adam wasn’t able to crack $400 million at the global box office and ultimately wasn’t very well received by both fans and critics (I thought it was imperfect but still fun).

While the writing was already on the wall, both The Rock and Gunn made it official on Tuesday night, with Dwayne Johnson tweeting that Black Adam will not be involved in the DCU’s “first storytelling chapter” but could be utilized down the road when the franchise explores the multiverse.”

“James Gunn and I connected, and Black Adam will not be in their first chapter of storytelling. However, DC and Seven Bucks have agreed to continue exploring the most valuable ways Black Adam can be utilized in future DC multiverse chapters,” The Rock’s statement reads in part.

“James and I have known each other for years and have always rooted for each other to succeed. It’s no different now, and I will always root for DC (and Marvel) to win and WIN BIG.”

Needless to say, given the profile of the DCU and The Rock — and how publically and relentlessly he marketed the movie — the reactions to the virtual end of Black Adam were all over the place.

https://twitter.com/Amazon_artemis/status/1605341762721030145

According to Gunn, DC fans will have a better idea of what to expect in coming years when he and Safran announce some of their future plans next month.

On a personal note, I find the revisionist history regarding The Rock and Black Adam is largely off-base — people are acting like the DC administration change was a direct result of that movie and that movie alone. For YEARS people cried about getting Henry Cavill back as Superman and Johnson pulled it off! But now because it’s trendy, everyone is dunking on him.

Let me remind you that DC had ZERO — ZERO — cohesive forward-thinking strategy, so he tried to circle the wagons and have the franchise recommit to Cavill as its centerpiece while also building out in new directions. It didn’t work. But let’s not all suddenly pretend we’ve been rooting for it to fail all this time.

In addition to Cavill’s Superman and The Rock’s Black Adam, reports also seem to indicate that Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman will be brought to an end, too. Conversely, Matt Reeves’ The Batman franchise seems to be safe.

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