David Zaslav Met with The Rock About Fixing DC — But Talks Ended After ‘Black Adam’ Flopped

Warner Bros. has been trying for years to make its DC Comics movies a huge success, but nothing has really worked out. Despite many promises from different executives, DC heroes like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have never quite reached the same level of popularity as Marvel’s Spider-Man or Captain America.

Now, the studio is trying again with a fresh plan. This week, a new Superman movie will hit theaters, kicking off what the studio hopes will be a whole new DC movie universe. Along with the Superman reboot, there are plans for a Supergirl spin-off, a Green Lantern TV show, and several new Batman movies.

The pressure is on for Warner Bros. Discovery, the company that owns DC. CEO David Zaslav has said many times that fixing DC is one of the biggest opportunities for the company. But so far, the company’s stock price hasn’t done well since Warner merged with Discovery three years ago.

One of the biggest problems in the past was that different parts of DC—like movies, TV shows, animation, and licensing, worked separately without a clear plan. Dan DiDio, a longtime DC executive, said, “There was always friction pulling DC together because there were a lot of individual ideas, rather than one overarching vision.”

Zaslav even met with some big names who might help fix DC, including actor and wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. But those talks ended after The Rock’s movie, Black Adam, didn’t do well at the box office. This is also not the first time that this has been mentioned.

Rumors started swirling that The Rock wanted to shake things up at DC completely. He and his manager, Dany Garcia, reportedly wanted to take over leadership and put their own production company, Seven Bucks, in charge. They even aimed to replace then-DC Studios chief Walter Hamada.

According to a report published by The Wrap, The Rock and Garcia met with Zaslav in 2022 to discuss not only adding Superman back into Black Adam but also the possibility of Seven Bucks running DC instead of Hamada. However, someone close to Seven Bucks denied that the meeting was about pushing Garcia to replace Hamada.

In the end, Garcia was not hired to lead DC, and after James Gunn and Peter Safran were brought in to take charge, The Rock and Seven Bucks were pushed out of the DC division. This shakeup also led to former Superman actor Henry Cavill firing Dany Garcia as his manager.

After Black Adam’s failure, James Gunn and Peter Safran rebooted the DC universe, which led to Henry Cavill being dropped as Superman. Cavill was initially told to let fans know he’d return as Clark Kent, but a few weeks later, it was announced that the new projects would move forward without him because Gunn wants a younger Superman.

The future of DC’s movie universe is now in the hands of Gunn and Safran, with Warner Bros. hoping the new Superman movie and upcoming projects will finally turn things around.

If you have thoughts on this, feel free to share in the comments below!