There’s a new man running everything in the house of WB Discovery and that’s David Zaslav. Since taking office, there have been some bold moves, especially on the DC front. And through his efforts, the DC division became “DC Studios” under new executives James Gunn and Peter Safran. Gunn and Safran got the job after the deal with Dan Lin fell through. But it seems there was someone else looking to lead the future of DCU as well, and it’s none other than Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson! And now that Gunn has taken the reins, the Black Adam star seems to be salty about it.
The fueled brewing between James Gunn and The Rock
Also Read: James Gunn Reportedly Faced Dwayne Johnson – The Rock Apparently Wants More DCU Focus on Black Adam Than Henry Cavill’s Superman
In addition to Dwayne Johnson and James Gunn ignoring each other on social media, David Zaslav’s latest interview with Deadline gives us an even bigger clue that they aren’t on the same page. Speaking of how DC Studios will take the same formula as Marvel to build a connected universe, here’s what the head of WB Discovery had to say:
“[DC is] an extremely undervalued asset. Disney has done a wonderful job with Marvel. But if you looked at Marvel and DC ten years ago, you would have said DC was as good or better. But Marvel is a connected universe. He has a “bible”. The key was to have one person tracking everything. All of Marvel is one place. You don’t wake up and find there’s been a Batman TV show somewhere.
A producer like Kevin Feige has always been hard to find. So, Zaslav hired two people to run his ship.
James Gunn and Peter Safran were the right choices
James Gunn is the face and has the comic book knowledge to get it right, and Peter Safran is a seasoned studio executive with more technical knowledge of DC movie production. So, David Zaslav and even the fans agree that these two were the right people for the job. Zaslav continued:
“DC is one of the greatest opportunities [for] this company. Our business is a creative business so we found two great guys. You will see a lot of growth around DC. We haven’t made a Superman movie in 13 years.
But the problem now is that James Gunn and the Rock are at odds. It’s been stated in the past that Dwayne Johnson has a specific vision for the DCEU. And now that vision could probably be pushed aside for James Gunn’s decade-long DCU plans. Thus, the Black Adam franchise could find itself in troubled waters.
Also Read: James Gunn Teases DC’s Third Smartest Superhero and Batman’s Rival in Another Cryptic Tweet as Fans Demand Separate JSA Movie After Black Adam
What the future holds
Being a producer himself, Dwayne Johnson usually has a say in everything he does. But now that he has to check in with two new men in charge, Black Adam’s future looks bleak. Despite the promises, he may not want to come back. The fact that black adam also didn’t perform as well at the Box Office would give Dwayne Johnson even smaller ground to stand on for the sequel. So it would be interesting to see how Dwayne Johnson and Gunn would work together to create future Black Adam and Shazam! films possible because they were produced by Johnson’s production company, Seven Bucks Productions.
Also Read: ‘There Are Other Voices, Too’: Henry Cavill Admits Dwayne Johnson Isn’t the Only Reason He Returned to DCU as Superman
Perhaps from now on, Black Adam could just continue to feature in crossover events with Johnson raking in huge paychecks on those projects (instead of producing them himself). We’ll have to wait and see if he settles for that. However, it would be nice if Hollywood didn’t have another Dwayne Johnson feud. You do not agree ?
Source: Deadline
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