Shazam! And Black Adam Were Both Torpedoed By Dwayne Johnson (And His Ego), According To New Report

Dwayne Johnson might be a massively successful and beloved figure, but a new report from The Wrap claims he could also be partly responsible for "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" underperforming at the box office. Johnson is a relentlessly positive man. His Twitter feed is an endless series of success stories, motivational aphorisms, and cry laugh emojis. Just this past week the wrestler turned movie star celebrated setting an attendance record for his XFL football league, writing, "Step by step we're building for the long haul for our fans and player opportunities." It calls to mind a phrase he used during his bewildering refusal to publicly acknowledge that 2022's "Black Adam," in which he starred, wasn't quite the mega hit Warner Bros. and DC were hoping for.

In December of last year, he infamously tweeted that he was, "building [his] new franchise step by step," celebrating the "fact" that his film was set to make a profit of "between $52M-$72M." That was despite the fact that Variety reported the film would lose between $50 million and $100 million, and sources confirmed to /Film that "Black Adam" had to hit $425 million just to break even. The film ended up making $391 million globally.

Johnson's persistent positivity makes sense considering his success elsewhere. He parlayed a career as a wrestling superstar into becoming a Hollywood superstar, building successful businesses in the process and all the while staying in better shape than anyone has ever been in their life. It's almost as if the concept of failure does not register in his brain. But everyone makes missteps here and there. And if The Wrap's report is to be believed, Dwayne Johnson's "Black Adam" saga was even more full of them than we thought — to the extent that it affected the "Shazam!" sequel.

The Rock may be a big fan of building things "step by step," but according to The Wrap he also undermined "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" in a similarly systematic way. James Gunn is set to kick off his vision for the DC Universe in 2025 by directing his "Superman: Legacy" film, but in the meantime, Warner Bros. and DC are having to churn through the remaining vestiges of the Snyderverse. The latest example to hit theaters is director David F. Sandberg's "Shazam!" sequel, which debuted with a $30.5 million opening weekend and such disappointing box office numbers that it probably killed the franchise.

There are a lot of explanations for the film's poor financial performance. General superhero movie fatigue appears to be setting in hard across the board, while DC Studios co-heads Gunn and Peter Safran's planned soft reboot has everyone generally confused about where these movies are going. "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" also garnered some pretty lackluster reviews, even while its audience score remained high.

But it seems there was another problem plaguing the Zachary Levi-starring sequel. And that problem was, according to The Wrap's report, Dwayne Johnson. It's well known that Johnson was pushing to reorganize DC's on-screen universe around, well, himself. "Black Adam" was his passion project, which he relentlessly promised would see "the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe" change. And as the film came together, he seemingly believed in his project so much that he started playing the role of studio exec, going over the head of then president of DC Films Walter Hamada to secure a Henry Cavill Superman cameo. And in the process, Johnson may well have undermined not just his future at DC, but the "Shazam!" franchise, too.

According to The Wrap, Dwayne Johnson's focus on establishing a battle between Black Adam and Superman went a long way to kneecapping "Shazam! Fury of the Gods." Citing "high-level Hollywood insiders," the report claims this attempt to shoehorn the Man Of Steel into "Black Adam" came at the expense of a planned post-credits scene wherein Zachary Levi's Shazam would have been recruited to the Justice Society of America. That scene was designed to build anticipation for "Fury of the Gods," but according to this latest report, it was nixed in favor of Henry Cavill's appearance, shortly before James Gunn announced that Cavill would not be returning as Superman any time soon.

Some of the claims in the article are fairly damning, with one "high-ranking Hollywood executive" quoted as saying, "Dwayne tries to sell himself as bigger than the movie. He's one of the few people who always thinks he's the most important person in any situation or room." The crux of it all comes down to a claimed desire on Johnson's part to build his own brand even at the expense of undermining his own films and other franchises connected to them. As The Wrap claims, once the "Black Adam" star decided he was going to be the center of the DC Universe going forward, that necessitated a showdown with Superman, leaving Levi's lesser-known Shazam out in the cold.

On top of all that, the report states Johnson vetoed the use of "Black Adam" actors in a post-credit scene that would have seen Shazam finally come face-to-face with Black Adam. (SPOILER WARNING) That scene now shows up midway through the credits of "Fury of the Gods." However, thanks to Johnson's meddling, it now features "Suicide Squad" and "Peacemaker" actors Jennifer Holland and Steve Agee instead.

Most of the claims made in The Wrap article relate to stuff we knew. Dwayne Johnson has been vocal about his desire to remold DC in his image and has consistently refused to acknowledge that "Black Adam" didn't perform all that well. At this years' Oscars, he told Variety, "It's almost like when you have a pro football team and your quarterback wins championships and your head coach wins championships and then a new owner comes in and says, 'Not my coach, not my quarterback. I'm going to go with somebody new.'"

He's clearly referring to James Gunn and Peter Safran's future plans for DC and the decision to shelve "Black Adam" sequels. But it's the inability to acknowledge "Black Adam" wasn't the hit it needed to be that gives credence to The Wrap's report. So while The Wrap has just added to what we knew about Johnson's startling inability to call a spade a spade, it also demonstrates that his relentless positivity in the face of unfortunate facts has the potential to hurt other franchises and individuals indirectly connected with his brand-building enterprise. Following the poor response to his film, "Fury of the Gods" director David F. Sandberg tweeted that he'll be returning to his horror roots, which is actually great news as his talents are wasted on superhero movies.

But it didn't have to happen this way. And the irony is that in pushing his own agenda, Johnson has seemingly damaged his own reputation as well as the "Black Adam" and "Shazam" franchises. As one "Hollywood insider" told The Wrap, "By alienating the established property that his character was born out of, and refusing to integrate with other established characters, [Johnson] systematically crippled two franchises, and has harmed DC in the process."