Dwayne Johnson Finally Explains Why His DCEU Revamp Was Canceled

Dwayne Johnson has revealed why he didn’t continue with his plans to revamp the DC Comics film universe. 

During his visit to Kevin Hart’s Hart to Heart show, the former professional wrestler was tasked with addressing the controversy behind the cancellation of his plans to expand the DC Extended Universe with Black Adam. According to Johnson, James Gunn taking over the reins had something to do with things falling apart, and he walked into a bad situation.

Black Adam was Johnson’s biggest opening of his career and brought in $393.3 million off a reported budget of $190 to $260 million, making it the best-performing movie for DC since Aquaman in 2018. The film was supposed to restart the DCEU but the hiring of James Gunn and Peter Safran changed all of that.  

“I think that Black Adam got caught in a vortex of new leadership, and at that time, as we were creating Black Adam, developing it, shooting Black Adam, we got knocked down a little bit because of COVID and the shutdowns, and got back up—there were so many changes in leadership,” Johnson said. 

He continued, “As you know, anytime you have a company, but especially that size and magnitude, that is a public traded company—and you have all those changes in leadership, you have people coming in who creatively, fiscally, are gonna make decisions that you may not agree with philosophically. I think Black Adam was one of those movies that caught in that web of new leadership.”