Dwayne Johnson Blames DC’s “Vortex of New Leadership” for the End of ‘Black Adam’

Dwayne Johnson‘s passion project Black Adam seemed to implode before our very eyes after it was announced that DC would not be moving forward with the franchise.

But while some may be ready to blame it on the movie’s lackluster box office results, Johnson has another foe in mind: DC’s new leadership.

The action star sat down with Kevin Hart for his Peacock talk series Hart to Hart to discuss what might have went wrong with the movie. “I think that Black Adam got caught in a vortex of new leadership,” he told Hart. He added that throughout the movie’s years-long development, “There were so many changes in leadership.”

“You have people coming in who creatively, fiscally, are gonna make decisions that you may not agree with philosophically. I think Black Adam was one of those movies that got caught in that web of new leadership,” Johnson explained, likely referring to the canceled Bat Girl that will unfortunately never see the light of day. “And that will always be one of the biggest mysteries, not only for me and us on our end, but also throughout our business.”

Johnson is likely referring to the exit of DC President Walter Hamada, who left the company the same week that Black Adam hit theaters, though Deadline claims he was ready to leave after Bat Girl was canceled. In a rather unprecedented move, filmmakers James Gunn and Peter Safran were swiftly named co-CEOs of the studio.

Johnson compared it to new leadership buying an NFL team. “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,” he said.

It’s not clear what he meant by winning the Super Bowl, considering Black Adam was deemed a box office flop after only clearing a little south of $400 million.

But if you ask Shazam! star Zachary Levi, he would likely tell you Johnson “tanked” both of their franchises. A report from The Wrap claimed Johnson “attempted to restructure the DCEU centering him and Henry Cavill’s Superman” and didn’t allow Black Adam or Shazam to appear in post-credits scenes for either of their movies.

Levi appeared to back the report’s claims by sharing the post on Instagram and writing, “The truth shall set you free.”

Johnson pushed for Henry Cavill to appear in the post-credits scene to launch a franchise that would lead up to a massive showdown between them. But Gunn and Safran’s plans for a new era of DC does not include more adventures with Black Adam or Superman, even if the fans may have wanted one.

“I think as business-minded people who are always thinking audience-first,… when that wasn’t looked at through that lens, it makes things a little more challenging,” he said.