Dwayne Johnson says Black Adam got caught in 'web of new leadership'

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson says a 'Black Adam' sequel was dropped because it got caught in a "web of new leadership" at DC Studios.

The 51-year-old actor had plans to make a whole franchise around the DC Comics character but after James Gunn and Peter Safran were brought in to take over DC Studios, more 'Black Adam' movies were axed.

Speaking on a recent episode of Kevin Hart’s 'Hart to Heart' show, Johnson said: "'Black Adam' got caught in a vortex of new leadership. And at that time, as we were creating 'Black Adam', developing it, shooting 'Black Adam' … it was so many changes in leadership. And as you know, anytime you have a company, but especially that size and magnitude that’s a publicly traded company, and you have all those changes in leadership, you have people coming in who, creatively and fiscally, are going to make decisions that you may not agree with.”

Johnson added that the decision to drop the sequels "will always be one of the biggest mysteries".

He said: "You have the biggest opening of your career. Sure, no China, that could’ve been maybe 100, maybe 200 million more dollars. You’re establishing a new superhero and you want to grow out the franchise. You bring back Superman and Henry Cavill – the world went crazy. … We created a diverse superhero portfolio, where we have just men and women of colour in 'Black Adam 2' as well.

"As business-minded people who are always thinking audience first, yes we look at and respect the bottom line economically, but also when you think about opportunity and creating opportunity and creating things that are fresh and delivering for the audience, which is our number one boss, when that wasn’t looked at through that lens, it makes things a little bit more challenging."