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After the critical and commercial failure of Black Adam and his exit from the DC Extended Universe, Dwayne Johnson has finally admitted that he faltered.
Black Adam became a box-office bomb with an earning of $391 million globally against a budget of $195 million plus an additional $40 million, the latter of which was spent on reshoots. The film failed critically and commercially for various reasons, ranging from the film's unoriginality and rehash of moments and shots from previous superhero films such as X-Men and previous DC films like Superman to a half-baked plot and undeveloped characters.
Dwayne Johnson admits failure: Shaky relationship between The Rock and DC?
Dwayne Johnson took to Instagram to share a self-reflective post about "having the guts to fail" following Black Adam's box-office failure and his exit from the DC Extended Universe. He, however, does not directly reference the film.
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His post's caption states:
"Tapping in with you with a quick thought that's anchored my success (and failures) over the years that may anchor and help you too on your journey. Having the guts to fail is far more powerful than having the desire to succeed. Having the desire to succeed is very attractive. It's s**y."
He then added:
"While having the guts to fail is extremely uncomfortable. And sometimes it's scary. But guts over desire has served me all throughout my career - and when we put ourselves in positions to be uncomfortable - to have the guts to fail - we actually set ourselves up in a much more powerful way to WIN. It's 2023. It's our year. Guts over desire."
In the post, Johnson also credited his good friend and motivational speaker, Inky Johnson, for giving him this unique perspective. He stated:
"He's always got great perspective, grounding perspective. He keeps it raw. He keeps it real. He said something that was really profound that I feel ties into this whole thing: he talked about having the guts to fail,"
According to The Tribune, shortly after the Warner Bros-Discovery merger, Dwayne Johnson had pitched a multi-year plan to CEO David Zaslav for the Black Adam franchise and a Henry Cavill-led Superman film, intending to interconnect both projects to set up a showdown film between The Rock's lightning-Esque antihero and the Man of Steel.
According to a source of The Tribune, while Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca approved of Henry Cavill's hyped cameo in Black Adam's post-credit scene, they felt that Johnson's direct approach to ensuring the same was rough.
"Dwayne went around everyone, which didn't sit well."
The strained relationship between The Rock, Warner Bros, and DC has worsened matters. According to one of The Tribune's sources, Dwayne Johnson reportedly pushed for a producer credit in the animated film DC'S League of Super Pets, where he voiced the lead character Krypto and also portrayed Black Adam and his pet Anubis in the film's post-credits scene, ostensibly to promote the antihero film.
Thus, it was unsurprising that after Black Adam's critical and commercial failure, new DC heads James Gunn and Peter Safran pulled the plug on the antihero franchise and did not greenlight any future sequels.
Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam future and League of Super Pets universe?
Following Black Adam's failure, Gunn and Safran's decision to not continue with the character in the DC Extended Universe. Dwayne Johnson took to Instagram to say that he had spoken with James Gunn about the latter's decisions and how they were all good and discussed potential future plans to incorporate Black Adam. He stated:
"My passionate friends, I wanted to give you a long-awaited Black Adam update regarding the character's future in the new DC Universe. James Gunn and I connected, and Black Adam will not be in their first chapter of storytelling."
Adding on:
"However, DC and Seven Bucks have agreed to continue exploring the most valuable ways Black Adam can be utilised in future DC multiverse chapters."
Concluding:
"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."
While the Rock may not have a future with DC anymore, we can only hope that he finds some other franchise to put his feet on, possibly DC's cinematic rival, Marvel, which has been performing well regardless of its own issues.
On another note, with regards to the League of Super Pets franchise, Dwayne Johnson has stated that the first film was the start of a new animated universe centered around Krypto, Ace, and other super pets.
Unlike Black Adam, League of Super-Pets was a commercial and critical success, grossing over $207 million worldwide against a budget of $90 million. Taking to Instagram, Dwayne Johnson said:
"With the DC Super-Pets Universe we had an opportunity to build out this awesome animated universe in a big, fun, cool way."
As for Dwayne Johnson's next projects, he is slated to produce and star in a film called The King, directed by Robert Zemeckis, and will also produce and star in a sequel to the 1986 film Big Trouble in Little China. Dwayne Johnson is also working on an untitled project focusing on the fictional character Doc Savage, which Shane Black will direct.
