Dwayne Johnson Discusses His Attempt To Get Henry Cavill Back as Superman
As you know, Dwayne Johnson tried so hard to get Henry Cavill back in the DCU as Superman, and while he briefly appeared in Black Adam, James Gunn and Peter Safran ultimately decided that Cavill’s version of Superman had no place in their future DC movie plans. So, after all that effort that Johnson and Cavill put into making this happen, it was shut down.
During a recent interview with Johnson on the red carpet at the Oscars, he was asked about Cavill’s Superman being dropped from the DC Universe despite the excitement surrounding his return. He responded, saying:
“All that I can do, and all that we could do when we were making ‘Black Adam,’ was to put our best foot forward and surround ourselves with the best people and deliver the best movie we could. Our audience score was in the 90s. Critics took a couple shots, but that’s just the business of it.”
“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.'”
Johnson is obviously referring to new DC Studios bosses Gunn and Safran. By reintroducing Cavill’s Superman into Black Adam, Johson was laying the groundwork for his own version of the DC Universe, which would have seen the relationship between Black Adam and Superman play out over the course of multiple films. Producer Hiram Garcia said:
“We really want to craft a long-form of storytelling and show that these two characters exist in the same universe and are going to have to deal with each other often, either on the same or opposite sides. Hopefully they’re going to clash at some point, but it’s not just about a ‘one fight’ situation. That was never our dream. That does not reward the fans. Fans want to feel a journey between these guys knowing that these guys exist in the same universe.”
Now, Johnson did say that he and James Gunn connected, “and Black Adam will not be in their first chapter of storytelling. However, DC and Seven Bucks have agreed to continue exploring the most valuable ways Black Adam can be utilized in future DC multiverse chapters.” I seriously doubt that’s going to happen, though. I don’t think we’ll see Johnson as Black Adam again.
Regardless, Johnson is proud of his film, saying: “After 15 years of relentless hard work to finally make ‘Black Adam,’ I’m very proud of the film we delivered for fans worldwide. I will always look back on the fan reaction to ‘Black Adam’ with tremendous gratitude, humility and love.”
It’s a shame that things didn’t work out for Henry Cavill’s Superman, I was very much looking forward to seeing his story continue, but it just wasn’t meant to be.