Dwayne Johnson blames ‘vortex of new leadership’ for Black Adam sequel decision

James Gunn and Peter Saffran took over as CEOs of DC Studios last year

Dwayne Johnson has blamed a “vortex of new leadership” at Warner Bros for the lack of a sequel to his 2022 film Black Adam.

The former wrestler played the title role in the DC Comics superhero blockbuster. Black Adam made nearly $400m at the global box office, but a prospective sequel has been shelved.

Johnson spoke about his disappointment in an episode of Kevin Hart’s new Peacock series Hart to Heart.

In a preview clip released online, Hart, who has starred alongside Johnson in films such as Central Intelligence and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, was seen asking why plans for a Black Adam sequel were abandoned, despite an “appetite” from Johnson’s fanbase.

“I think that Black Adam got caught in a vortex of new leadership,” Johnson replied.

He went on to claim that the film was “knocked down a bit” by issues relating to the Covid pandemic, before returning to the issue of leadership overhaul.

“It was so many changes in leadership. Anytime you have a company, a publicly-traded company, and you have all those changes in leadership, you have people coming in who creatively, fiscally, are going to make decisions that you may not agree with, philosophically,” he said.

David Zaslav took over as CEO of Warner Bros Discovery after the merger of Warner with Discovery Inc in 2022. He replaced Jason Kilar, who had been in charge of WarnerMedia since 2020.

DC Studios, the film company in charge of the DC Universe franchise, announced in 2022 that Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn and producer Peter Safran were taking over as co-chairmen and co-CEOs.

Johnson in ‘Black Adam’ (Warner Bros Pictures)

The appointment signalled a change in strategy for the multi-billion-dollar franchise, and a number of planned film projects were abandoned as a result.

In December, Johnson shared details on social media of a conversation with Gunn, in which it was decided that Black Adam wouldn’t feature in the “first phase” of the re-tooled DC Universe.

“However, DC and [production company] Seven Bucks have agreed to continue exploring the most valuable ways Black Adam can be utilised in future DC multiverse chapters,” the actor wrote.

“These decisions made by James and DC leadership represent their vision of DCU through their creative lens.”