Last week, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson surprised fans when he stopped following the Instagram accounts of his recent film “Black Adam” and its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. The move apparently came as a result of The Rock being upset with a change in power within the DC Universe.
On Tuesday, The Rock announced that plans for a “Black Adam” sequel have been halted and will not be moving forward any time soon.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the news comes as new DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran reshape the DC landscape. Henry Cavill’s “Man of Steel” sequel and Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman 3” are also apparently falling by the wayside.
On his Twitter account, The Rock put out a statement praising James Gunn and the first chapter of the new DCU. He also wenton to say that his production company, Seven Bucks Productions and DC utilized the multiverse side of the franchise going forward for appearances in the future.
“James Gunn and I connected and, Black Adam will not be in their first chapter of storytelling,” Rock wrote. “However, DC and Seven Bucks have agreed to continue exploring the most valuable ways Black Adam can be utilized in future DC multiverse chapters.”
“James and I have known each other for years and have always rooted for each other to succeed,” Johnson wrote. “It’s no different now, and I will always root for DC (and Marvel) to win and WIN BIG.”
“These decisions made by James and DC leadership represent their vision of DCU through their creative lens,” he added.
“After 15 years of relentless hard work to finally make Black Adam, I’m very proud of the film we delivered for fans worldwide. I will always look back on the fan reaction to Black Adam with tremendous gratitude, humility and love. We did great.”
“To my very passional and vocal Black Adan/Super Hero genre fans – I love you. THANK YOU, and I will ALWAYS LISTEN TO YOU and do my best to deliver and entertain you.”
Gunn also shared a statement saying: “Love @TheRock & I’m always excited to see what he & Seven Bucks do next. Can’t wait to collaborate soon.”
Ahead of the release of “Black Adam,” The Rock announced plans to develop his own area of the DC Universe centered on characters such as the Justice Society of America, as well as a future “Black Adam vs. Superman” movie, a showdown teased in a “Black Adam” credit scene that sawHenry Cavill back as Superman for the first time since Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
The Hollywood Reporter also revealed that the film’s production budget spiked after reshoots were done in order to improve poor test scores. The final report of the budget of the film was $260 million.
