Dwayne Johnson’s toil of bringing the Black Adam movie to life is a story in itself. After 15 years of waiting, the actor eventually starred in his dream project as the compelling, dangerous, and universe-shifting anti-hero, nevertheless, the outcome isn’t as adequate as the WWE star would’ve aspired.
After he announced himself as Teth Adam way back in 2007, the property ensued numerous reschedules, with the studio asking the Rock to star in some other superhero role. The actor was still persistent and didn’t budge from his stand and eventually succeeded, as the movie was released in the fall of 2022. Howbeit the film lacked a satisfactory commercial and critical reception.
Warner Bros was exasperated by Dwayne Johnson’s constant demands
Amidst the power vacuum that transpired in the studio after the exit of Walter Hamada and Tommy Emmerich from the office, some executives recalled Dwayne Johnson’s augmenting demands at every stride and he was inclined on the idea to make a whole Black Adam Cinematic Universe. With requisitions exceeding the actor’s blanket and his vigorous meetings of yearning for more crave for the IP and unhinged passion of fabricating Black Adam as the face of DC, was overwhelming for numerous bigwigs in the studio. with one source stating,
“Dwayne went around everyone, which didn’t sit well”.
Following the actor’s other strange requests of him asking the studios to credit him as a producer in the DC League of Super-pets despite his minimal marketing for the project to another odd appeal to grant his brand Tequila a bar at the Black Adam New York premiere. “His demands increased and the returns just weren’t there.” one insider stated.
With the overripe marketing and hyping for the movie not to mention his increasing demands, Dwayne Johnson furthermore went on spoiling the post-credit scene including Henry Cavill’s superman cameo, which led to some good initial receptions but in retrospect, a post-credit scene wasn’t enough to assemble people in theatres for a 2-hour mediocre action flick, to boot with the further exclusion of Henry Cavill from Superman leaving the movie’s ending little pungent.
With the tumultuous essence in the studio which was looking at every possible way to cut costs, the Black Adam’s underwhelming reception with $391m from an overwhelming budget of $195m plus another $ 40m for reshoots, didn’t help the actor in cementing his vision for the cinematic universe.
Black Adam’s future to be shelved in the corner
The Rock’s vision didn’t end up suiting the character, as the movie as a whole came out pretty flat, from a forgettable third act to unimportant characters not bouncing off each other, to a pretty generic 2000s villain, as a whole marking it as a watchable action flick at most.
With James Gunn and peter Safran in the room scraping the last remains of the Snyderverse, Black Adam’s future has been shelved in a sandbox, as James Gunn is eminent to take out the remaining bandages from DCEU which was on a slow spiral death since BVS and finally calling the hard shots. Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam in retrospect will be seen as the last remnant of the dying Snyderverse that was on life support, which was further made sure by the Black Adam actor himself that he isn’t gonna return in the initial chapters of the new incarnation of this universe.
With everything going DC’s future looks stable for the moment, considering the revising going on by James Gunn and Safran, while Rock and his Black Adam are likely to remain as a one-off with no sequel possibilities, well at least in the first initial chapters of the new DCU whose template is scheduled to be released in the early of January by James Gunn.
Black Adam is now streaming on HBO MAX.
Source: Variety
