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THE ROCK'S BLACK ADAM SEQUEL DEAD, WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE DCU GOING FORWARD

Dwyane "The Rock" Johnson announced on his Twitter account today that Black Adam, the character that has very much been his major passion project for years, will not be featured going forward, at least in "the first chapter" of a new direction for DC's cinematic storytelling under the purview of new DC Co-Studio Heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, who are now in control, setting the direction and storylines for the famed comic book company's film, TV, animated and gaming going forward.

The move has to be seen as a disappointment for Johnson and Johnson fans.  It was a long road for the film since The Rock first announced he was taking on the mantle of the DC anti-hero way back in September 2014, when the original plan was to introduce him as the villain in the Shazam! film series.  Johnson lobbied for Black Adam to be introduced in his own film instead, allowing for two separate franchises to be launched with the idea that the characters would eventually go head to head, something that now won't happen anytime in the near future, if at all. 

Johnson used all of his promotional might in advance of the film's theatrical premiere earlier this year (it brought in $391,130,002 worldwide at the box office and is now streaming on HBO Max) but with the recent changes within the WBD hierarchy, the mantle of running the renamed DC Studios has been handed to Gunn and Saffran.  There was a feeling in some circles (while never explicitly stated) that Johnson was gunning for control of the DC Studios in some fashion, especially since he was going over the heads of outgoing studio execs to get certain things accomplished for Black Adam, including the return of Henry Cavill as Superman, which the former brain trust prior to the creation of WBD (formed when Discovery took over Warner Bros) did not want.

Johnson's tweet:

It should be noted that there had been some scuttlebutt in the Hollywood trade papers that Johnson's Black Adam film was not as profitable as it appeared on the surface, something Johnson took to Twitter previously to smash down.  Johnson's tone in his Tweet very much comes off, in some respects, as a conciliatory message of someone who won't be moving forward from a position of power.  If you were a fan of the film or Johnson, there's going to be disappointment here.   Johnson stated there will be future exploration of how the character can fit into the future, but that's at best a maybe when weeks ago it was a definite Black Adam was going to be a strong spine for an unfolding part of the DC mythos on film. 

Johnson has been a long-time booster of DC and wanting to make their film studio a grander player vs. Marvel and just several weeks back, was heavily pushing that the arrival of the film and Black Adam meant the entire hierarchy of DC was about to change - except the hierarchy changing behind the scenes made Johnson's claims null and void.

DC Studios have been in need of love and help for a long time, not having one singular person to oversee everything and be the final say, the way Marvel Studios has Kevin Feige or Lucasfilm once had in George Lucas.  Gunn and Saffran have now been placed in that role (with Gunn overseeing creative after his great success with Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy films and DC's The Suicide Squad) and are now in the midst of doing some heavy lifting to set the DC Universe into their new trajectory.  

The Johnson decision is just the latest move made as Gunn and Saffran work to reset DC's plans going forward, following Henry Cavill exiting (for now) as Superman (reversing a recent announcement that he would be returning, something Johnson himself had pushed for) and that Director Patty Jenkins' run on the Wonder Woman film series (which brought one excellent film and a follow-up that was nowhere as well received) to an apparent end.  

This was not and will not be an easy balancing act moving forward, whether Johnson had remained involved or not.  Gunn and Saffran have several DC projects, including four theatrical films (a new Aquaman sequel, the first-ever Flash feature film, the debut feature film for Blue Beetle and a Shazam! sequel) that they have inherited and are in the process of weaving how those stories and films will factor into their new vision for the DC Universe going forward. 

At the same time, they also have to incorporate projects like Gunn's excellent Peacemaker series starring John Cena, among others, some of which are in different stages of development and may not even be publicly known, into the refined version of DC, trying to quell what has been a haphazard and tumultuous attempt to match Marvel Studios, dating back to the 2013 release of Superman film The Man of Steel.

Gunn and Saffran have been tasked, basically, with building the plane while it's in the air and about to land in a hurricane - and with every passenger screaming at them the entire way.  It's pretty much a thankless process as much like pro wrestling, every "booking" decision made to keep going or kill a direction will bring out massive vitriol from online fans and until they get to a position where their own new projects are released (the first of which will be a new Superman film Gunn is writing that will feature the character in a younger era of his life and heroic career), they will be taking on machine gun fire from upset online fans - as DC fans in general have been a much more frenzied, angry fan base compared to Disney's Marvel Studios. 

The decision to shift away Johnson's incarnation Black Adam, no matter how much Johnson was classy in what almost amounts to a concession speech in his Tweet, is likely to rile up fans, especially given Black Adam was one of the stronger DC film releases of late, plus it featured a lot of classic characters, including Dr. Fate and Hawkman, as part of the first-ever live-action incarnation of DC's original superhero team, The Justice Society.  It was a film that very much felt as if it unified many of the most liked aspects of DC that fans have lived through over the last decade, including The Zack Snyder films, the James Gunn Suicide Squad and Peacemaker projects and was the "first chapter" going forward, but now that's not going to be the case - so any DC fans who found themselves invested coming out of Black Adam has to be again, wondering what is next instead.

Debuting in 1945, Black Adam is an ancient Egyptian predecessor of DC Comics' Shazam.  Shazam, he utters a magic word in order to be transformed by magical lightning into his super-powered form, but became corrupted after receiving his powers.  In recent years, he has also been the ruler of the fictional country Kahdaq.  There were allusions made to him, but not by name, in DC's feature film adaptation of Shazam! several years ago.

Promotional material for the film touts: "The World Needed a Hero. It Got Black Adam.  Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods—and imprisoned just as quickly—Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson) is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world."   

The Black Adam film is quite an enjoyable movie and well worth watching, even if a cliffhanger featured in a post-credit scene is unlikely to be explored anytime soon and any sequel plans are done.

James Gunn responded to The Rock's statement:

What this means going forward for The DCU is that they've just lost one of their most popular supporters in Johnson, someone who for 15 years pushed to do Black Adam his way and had wanted to carve out a piece of the film studio for himself going forward.  Instead, they are now tasked with going forward without his input and support (as well as without his insanely massive social media presence) while leaving him out there for Marvel to now approach, since Johnson's loyalty to DC has likely come to an end. 

The idea of Marvel offering Johnson a major role in the MCU such as Reed Richards, Luke Cage, Sentry or Dr. Doom is now more of a potential reality than it was even just a few weeks ago - and the idea of Johnson crossing his popularity with Marvel might be too big for Kevin Feige to resist.

DC may have indeed lost an important collaborator going forward - and with him, all the goodwill from Johnson fans, and goodwill is something DC (which I very much have loved my entire life) is in desperate need of going into 2023, unless Gunn and Saffran have a hell of a plan yet to be unveiled.  Stay tuned.

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