Comments
Dwayne Johnson is one of the most popular actors working today, starring in massive hits like Moana, Jumanji, Red Notice, and more. However, for a brief moment, it looked like Dwayne Johnson was going to get a new role that would define his career. Most of the time, Johnson plays original characters, but his casting as an eight-decade-old comic book character was close to changing the hierarchy of power of his filmography.
This role made 2022 a big year for The Rock, as his new release had the potential to change one of the biggest superhero movie franchises. However, this wasn’t his first movie in the franchise, as only a few months earlier he played an entirely different character in a related project.
DC League of Super-Pets Was Released On July 28, 2022 (Only A Few Months Before Black Adam)
In the midst of the DCEU making some major changes, an animated DC feature film was born. DC League of Super-Pets hit theaters on July 29, 2022, with it attempting to draw a younger crowd to its cast of DC legends. The film follows the titular superhero team, which consists of the pets of heroes like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Alongside characters like Krypto and Ace the Bat-Hound, the film is populated by other icons of DC Comics, from members of the Justice League to villains like Lex Luthor and Black Adam.
In DC League of Super-Pets, Krypto the Superdog is voiced by Dwayne Johnson, which was an interesting choice considering that the actor was starring in a completely different film only a few months later. The DCEU’s Black Adam was set to release on October 21, 2022, with Johnson in the title role. As was heavily promoted, Black Adam was meant to change the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe, with Johnson’s role in the animated film almost seeming like promotion for Black Adam. This casting connection wasn’t lost on the film, though, as the post-credits scene shows Krypto meeting Black Adam and his pet dog, Anubis.
Due to DC League of Super-Pets being an animated kids’ film, it is discussed a lot less than the DCEU’s tentpole Black Adam movie. After all, Black Adam was meant to relaunch the DCEU, setting up the Justice Society of America, connections to Peacemaker, and a future fight between Adam and Henry Cavill’s Superman. However, Black Adam wasn’t the success that DC and Warner Bros. had hoped for.
Black Adam only made $393.5 million on a whopping $260 million budget, meaning that it probably lost a lot of money after marketing and distribution costs. It was a major bomb for Warner Bros., and plans for future Black Adam projects were quickly shelved. The film’s failure was a major turning point for the franchise, as the failure of Black Adam and The Flash led to the decision to end the DCEU and reboot the franchise in the form of James Gunn’s DCU.
DC League of Super-Pets, however, fared a lot better. While its $207.6 million box office was less than Black Adam‘s, the animated film only had a $90 million budget. This means that League of Super-Pets was profitable for Warner Bros., although it probably didn’t make up for the studio’s major losses on Black Adam. There hasn’t been a Super-Pets sequel yet, and it wasn’t a smash hit, but at least it didn’t kill an entire movie franchise.
DC’s Dwayne Johnson Era Is One Of The DCEU’s Strangest Moments
Fans of the DCEU remember how heavily Dwayne Johnson became tied to the series in late 2021 and 2022, and it was definitely odd. It seemed as if the DCEU was wholly reliant on Johnson to save the franchise, which may have been the case considering the DCEU’s death after Black Adam‘s failure. Constant promotions featuring Johnson and the increased importance of Black Adam in comic books proved that all of DC was making a concerted effort to increase the popularity of the villain and of the DCEU.
However, even if Black Adam did make money, this plan wouldn’t have worked. Fans of DC and of the Snyderverse don’t really care about Black Adam, as he’s supposed to just be a Shazam villain. Making him the central figure of the DCEU may have brought in outsiders, but DC fans want the Justice League and accurate DC stories, not Dwayne Johnson movies. The era of Black Adam is far more interesting than the movie itself, and if it hadn’t failed, we definitely would be living through a strange period of DC.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the Forum!
Black Adam Review: The Man in Black Brings Back the DCEU
