Warner Bros.
While it hasn’t been directly reported, the writing on the wall of the newly formed DC Studios seems to indicate that The Rock’s Black Adam franchise is over before it even began.
Despite the monumental effort that The Rock put into marketing the film, Black Adam — which featured a widely-teased post-credit scene starring Henry Cavill’s now-defunct Superman — was unable to crack $400 million at the global box office.
That subpar box office return (as far as tentpole superhero films are concerned) combined with the upcoming overhaul at DC suggests that while the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is, in fact, changing, it’s doing so without Black Adam.
It didn’t have to be this way for The Rock — who I imagine saw the writing on the wall with the sale of Warner Bros/DC Films and therefore figured the only way to save Black Adam would be to have him directly tied to Superman — as reports indicate he was offered the opportunity to appear in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which hits theaters in March. The Rock, according to reports from The Wrap reporter Umberto Gonzalez, apparently declined this offer.
While The Rock — one of the biggest and richest movie stars in the world — will be just fine, it’s difficult not to feel for him as Black Adam was a project passion of his that he worked on for over a decade.
As for where DC heads from here, now DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn said in a recent Twitter thread that he and co-CEO Peter Safran’s plan for the future of the DCU will be fully unveiled at the turn of the year.
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