Dwayne Johnson Talks Henry Cavill’s Exit As Superman And Ruined DC Ambitions

Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel was released in June 2013, and it changed everything. Synder’s stylistic dark takes of the DC universe was applauded, and Henry Cavill immediately became the ideal Superman. Cavill, in fact, became so popular that fans refused to accept anyone else as the red-capped Kryptonian. 

The actor did a couple of other films in character and also showed up in Dwayne Johnson’s ambitious project Black Adam. Given that Superman only showed up in the end, it still made fans very excited. 

The future potential could have been limitless. However, as Warner Bros. fame followed, Cavill was soon removed from the role by new DC heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, and any future plans for Black Adam films were called off. In a recent interview, Johnson finally opened up about what happened with DC and Superman.

Johnson and Adam

DC is no stranger to leaving loose ends lying around with no closure. Fans are still sore about the abandoned Snyder-verse. They were lucky enough to get a Snyder cut but was it enough? Zack Snyder showed everyone a dream of a post-apocalyptic world where Batman and Joker join forces against a crazed Superman. Unfortunately, the plan will never come to fruition.

Now, Superman, as we know him, is also gone. One of the people who were really upset about the news had to be Dwayne Johnson, whose ambitions had led to Black Adam. Earlier, Johnson had shared an update regarding Black Adam’s future. Here’s what he Tweeted in December last year:

“James Gunn and I 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.”

While the promise of a potential future is somewhat hopeful, it will likely not happen for several years to come, if it does at all. Black Adam was in no way a masterpiece that made an awful lot of money. Nor was it highly appreciated by critics. The 2022 film has an IMDb rating of 6.3 and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 39%. It was your usual run-of-the-mill origin story that told its facts and entertained the fans enough to be content after watching it. But did it have an exciting future? Definitely. 

“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,” said Johnson in a recent interview.

Clearly, the actor/producer is aware of the shortcomings of the film but also acknowledges that it was, in no way, irredeemable. The thing with some stories is, they take time to get to the best parts. Black Adam, however, just like the rest of DC stories, won’t be reaching those parts.

“Our audience score was in the 90s. Critics took a couple of shots, but that’s just the business of it,” added Johnson. Critics are getting tired of Superhero films and it shows. In fact, most of the recent films in the genre have not received kind reviews from critics. This includes both Marvel and DC films, with some exceptions like Matt Reeves’ The Batman.

“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.’”

In the end, what the boss says, goes. Johnson understands that well being the head of a production studio. Now, all that he and his fans can do is look forward to what Gunn and Safran have in store for them.