Dwayne Johnson Speaks Out on Henry Cavill’s Exit From DC

It looks like Black Adam was really eager to face Superman, as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson recently told Variety during a red carpet interview during last night’s 95th Academy Award ceremony. Before the actor presented the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature to Guillermo del Toro for his work on Netflix’s Pinnochio, he was questioned about what he thought regarding the fact that Henry Cavill is no longer attached to play Superman in upcoming DC projects. The state of the Man of Steel affects Johnson because the two characters were teased to be headed on a collision course during the post-credit scene of last year’s blockbuster. Here’s what the former WWE Superstar had to say:

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 referring to how, after the release of Black Adam in theaters, James Gunn and Peter Safran became the new co-presidents of DC Films. The duo created a new plan to allow movies, television series, animated projects and video games to co-exist in one single space for the brand, allowing characters to jump from one medium to the other while being played by their same actor. Unfortunately, those plans didn’t include Johnson’s Black Adam, or Cavill’s Superman, for that matter. Gunn is instead focused on writing a new iteration for the character, who will appear in the upcoming Superman: Legacy.

When asked about the reception Black Adam got from fans and critics, Johnson added that “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.” The actor also brought attention to how fans seemed to enjoy the movie more than film critics, saying: “Our audience score was in the 90s. Critics took a couple shots, but that’s just the business of it.”

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What’s Next for the DC Universe?

Even if audiences won’t be able to see Black Adam exchanging blows with Superman, Gunn and Safran have planned out plenty of content to keep fans entertained during the next few years. After Superman: Legacy is released in theaters on July 11, 2025, several productions are planned to make their way to the big screen in the future. Some of these films are The Authority, The Brave and the Bold and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Regardless if it comes to the movies or the television shows, it is clear that Gunn and Safran will make their best effort to bring a cohesive vision for the DC Universe to life.

Black Adam is now available to stream on HBO Max.