Dwayne Johnson has finally acknowledged that he failed after Black Adam's critical and commercial failure and his departure from the DC Extended Universe.
With a worldwide budget of $195 million and an additional $40 million spent on reshoots, Black Adam became a box office success with $391 million earned. The film failed both critically and commercially for a variety of reasons, including its lack of originality, repetition of scenes and scenes from previous DC and superhero films like Superman and X-Men, as well as a half-baked plot and undeveloped characters.
Following Black Adam's box office failure and his departure from the DC Extended Universe, Dwayne Johnson posted a self-reflective Instagram post about "having the guts to fail." However, he does not make any specific mention of the movie.
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 said that motivational speaker and good friend Inky Johnson gave him this unique perspective. He declared:
"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,"
The Tribune claims that shortly after the Warner Bros.-Discovery merger, Dwayne Johnson presented CEO David Zaslav with a multi-year plan for the Black Adam franchise and a Superman film starring Henry Cavill. He wanted to link the two projects together to set up a showdown film between The Rock's lightning-esque antihero and the Man of Steel.
Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca, according to a source from The Tribune, thought Johnson's direct approach to ensuring Henry Cavill's cameo in Black Adam's post-credit scene was rough.
Things have gotten worse as a result of the strained relationship between DC, Warner Bros., and The Rock. Dwayne Johnson reportedly pushed for a producer credit in the animated film DC'S League of Super Pets, where he voiced Krypto and also played Black Adam and his pet Anubis in the film's post-credits scene, ostensibly to promote the antihero film. This information comes from one of the sources cited by The Tribune.
As a result, it was not surprising that the new DC heads, James Gunn and Peter Safran, pulled the plug on the antihero franchise and did not approve any future sequels after Black Adam's critical and commercial failure.
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.
In addition, Dwayne Johnson has stated that the first installment of the League of Super Pets franchise marked the beginning of a new animated universe centered on Krypto, Ace, and other super pets.
League of Super-Pets, in contrast to Black Adam, was a commercial and critical success, earning over $207 million worldwide on a $90 million budget. Dwayne Johnson stated on Instagram:
"We had the opportunity to build out this awesome animated universe in a big, fun, cool way with the DC Super-Pets Universe."
Dwayne Johnson is scheduled to produce and star in Robert Zemeckis' The King, a film directed by Robert Zemeckis. He will also produce and star in a Big Trouble in Little China sequel. Shane Black will direct Dwayne Johnson's untitled project, which centers on the fictional character Doc Savage.
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