The Rock Explains What Happened With Black Adam - "Vortex Of New Leadership"

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has explained his side of the story about what happened with Black Adam, one of the newest DC Studios movie franchises that is not moving ahead (at least not yet).

Speaking to Kevin Hart, The Rock said Black Adam was "caught in the vortex of new leadership" at DC Studios, referring to James Gunn and Peter Safran recently becoming the new studio co-heads.

"Any time you have a company, especially of that size and magnitude--it'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 philosophically," he said. "So I think Black Adam was one of those movies that got caught in that web of new leadership. That will always be one of the biggest mysteries, not only for me, but also throughout our business."

The Rock said people on Wall Street and throughout Hollywood watched what happened with Black Adam and struggled to make sense of it. Black Adam had the biggest opening weekend of The Rock's career, and had the movie released in China, The Rock estimates it might have made as much as $200 million more. The movie finished with $393 million globally.

The Rock went on to say that Black Adam introduced a new superhero and helped to expand the DC Studios network of characters. It also generated a lot of buzz for bringing back Henry Cavill as Superman. Not only that, but The Rock said he was proud of the diversity in Black Adam.

The actor said he understands the economic realities of running a business, but at the same time, he said he believes there is value in creating something new for fans.

"When you think about opportunity; creating things that are fresh and delivering for the audience, which is our No. 1 boss, when that wasn't looked at through that lens, it makes things a little bit more challenging for guys like you and I," The Rock said to Hart. "It's like new ownership coming in and buying an NFL and going, 'All right, not my head coach, not my quarterback. Doesn't matter how many times you won the Super Bowl, doesn't matter how many rings we got, I'm going with somebody else.'"

In December, The Rock said he spoke with Gunn and confirmed that Black Adam will not be included in the "first chapter" of the next phase of DC movies. But The Rock and DC are working on ways to bring the character back in some way down the road.

"James Gunn and I connected, and Black Adam will not be in their first chapter of storytelling," Johnson wrote. "However, DC and Seven Bucks have agreed to continue exploring the most valuable ways Black Adam can be utilized in future DC multiverse chapters."

The next DC movie is Blue Beetle, which releases on August 18, and it will be followed by Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in December.