The Dwayne Johnson Action Failure Finding Life On Streaming
Black Adam may have been a financial miss for Dwayne Johnson, but we live in the age of streaming, where a movie that flopped can always find a second life. That seems to be the case with Black Adam, as the anti-hero film is currently sitting at #6 on Amazon Prime Video. You can go check it out now if you haven’t already or if you’re ready to revisit the film, knowing it doesn’t factor into the future of the DCU.
Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam may not have changed the hierarchy of the DC Universe, but it is a surprising streaming hit on Amazon Prime.
Black Adam stars Dwayne Johnson as the titular DC anti-hero, who is accidentally freed from years of magic imprisonment by a group of archeologists. The film sees Adam attempting to free his home of Kahndaq from a criminal organization while also facing off against the Justice Society, made up of Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Cyclone, and Atom Smasher. Along with Johnson, the film stars Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell, and Pierce Brosnan.
While fans generally enjoyed Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam, the film failed to break even at the box office despite the fact that it made around $393 million worldwide. While that number is nothing to sneeze at, big-budget comic book movies are just expected to make more these days. Also, it didn’t help that the film was released at an extremely tumultuous time for the DC film universe.
Right around the time of the release of Black Adam, new leadership was being put into place, with James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over the future of DC films and TV with their newly dubbed DCU. In other words, Gunn and Safran were ready to start fresh, and it seems like Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam didn’t really fit into their immediate plans. In fact, a post-credits scene of Black Adam featured Henry Cavill’s Superman, which is something that Johnson himself reportedly pushed very hard for.
Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam marked the beginning of the end of the DCU, with other DC films and projects being canceled amongst the big shifts in leadership at Warner Bros Discovery.
However, shortly after Henry Cavill’s long-awaited return as Superman, it was announced that Cavill would no longer be playing Superman as Gunn and Safran wanted to go in a new direction with the character and start with a younger Superman. So, all of Dwayne Johnson’s efforts to get Cavill in the post-credits scene were for naught, and it was later announced that there were no immediate plans for a Black Adam sequel in the future of the DCU. This would be confirmed when Gunn and Safran announced their first big slate of films and shows with not a mention of Black Adam in sight.
It’s not entirely off the table that Gunn could work with Dwayne Johnson sometime in the future, as Gunn would confirm that he looked forward to possibly collaborating with Johnson and his Seven Bucks Productions company. Johnson would later go on to say that he felt that the leadership changes at Warner Bros Discovery played a part in the film not getting a sequel. However, the fact that the film didn’t break even at the box office likely played a role in that decision as well, along with Gunn’s fresh revamp from the ground up.
So, does all of that mean that Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam isn’t worth watching? As long as you don’t expect the film to connect to some greater storyline, it’s still a solid action film, and Johnson plays the role of Adam well. It’s also fun to see characters like Doctor Fate brought into live-action, and, as mentioned, fans enjoyed the movie well enough.
So, all of Dwayne Johnson’s efforts to get Cavill in the post-credits scene were for naught, and it was later announced that there were no immediate plans for a Black Adam sequel in the future of the DCU.
Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam marked the beginning of the end of the DCU, with other DC films and projects being canceled amongst the big shifts in leadership at Warner Bros Discovery. Gunn and Safran did end up keeping films like Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and the recently released Blue Beetle stayed on the film slate, but Gunn’s DCU will officially kick off with Superman: Legacy in 2025. Interestingly, Blue Beetle is a DCU character, but his film technically isn’t a DCU film since it’s not part of the new Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters slate of projects that Gunn and Safran announced.
The final DCEU-related film will be Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in December before the DCEU is gone for good. In the meantime, you can check out Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam on Prime Video today. Stay tuned for more news about upcoming DCU projects.
