Black Adam's Dwayne Johnson Has Something Against Shazam Reportedly
As superhero movie Black Adam, the spin-off from Shazam! keeps setting records and making a buck it turns out Dwayne Johnson sort of... dislikes it!
What a revelation especially if you know that originally Black Adam or Teth-Adam should have appeared in Shazam! Johnson asked Warner Bros. to give Teth-Adam his own origin story rather than being introduced in that movie. The actor said literally this.
"It was just a mosh of 'just put them both together because they're both connected.' So that's when I said 'you can't do it like this, we have to respect Shazam and his origin story, that has to be its own movie. Respect Black Adam, this has to be its own movie.'"
But Rock hasn't ruled out that both will meet one day to exchange blows following a proper "build-up". In the same interview shared on Twitter by @AjepArts, Dwayne Johnson confirmed "the crossover is gonna happen."
Indeed, the showdown between Billy Batson and Teth-Adam seems eminent in the DCU 's future – since the Shazam producer Peter Safran has now become one the DC Studios' bosses together with James Gunn. While Gunn's focus is the creative side, Safran takes care of the business and production matters. And Safran produced both Shazam! and Shazam! Fury of the Gods movies before he took the position of DC Studios co-CEO. A report in Wrap says the producer will now have to solve a challenging task – to bring all creative sides together.
Safran needs to win over all the other filmmakers... and Dwayne Johnson's thinly veiled disdain for Shazam means he probably isn't loving the idea that his boss is now the guy that produces 'Shazam.' Safran is pretty diplomatic, so I think he will pull it off but it won't be easy, the report says.
Black Adam, based on DC comics premiered in October and is now playing in theaters across the world. It has introduced Dwayne Johnson's Teth-Adam as the titular antihero, a slave from Kahndaq who is reborn with the magical powers of gods. It took Johnson some 15 years to bring his DC Expanded Universe film to the big screen and it was a success. Recently, he tweeted that the movie was propelled to the global box office top spot for its third consecutive weekend.
"Our film will be the #1 movie in the world for the 3rd week in a row. Makes me VERY happy."
According to The Hollywood Reporter, it is also the largest domestic box office ($67 million) opening for Johnson outside of the Fast & Furious movies ($60 million for Hobbs & Shaw). The reviews however were mixed – while some critics were unhappy with the screenplay the movie was praised for its visual effects.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods release is slated for March 17, 2023.