There’s no rule against actors working for both Marvel Studios and DC Films, as proven by the sheer volume of stars to have played parts in both of Hollywood’s premiere shared mythologies, but it’s very rare that anybody takes a leading role in a blockbuster hailing from each of the two comic book companies.
It isn’t entirely out of the question, though, with Ryan Reynolds finding much more success with Marvel’s Deadpool than he did with DC’s Green Lantern, while Ben Affleck conversely got a much better reception as Batman than he did as Daredevil over a decade previously. That being said, there hasn’t been any notable defectors during the shared universe era, at least in terms of big parts played by even bigger names.
He may have been attached to Black Adam for the better part of fifteen years, but Dwayne Johnson’s name regularly comes up when discussing A-listers that audiences would love to see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s a rumor that’s cropped up regularly, and while Seven Bucks President of Production Hiram Garcia admitted that The Rock is well acquainted with Kevin Feige and they’ve bounced some ideas back and forth, nothing serious has come out of their talks.
“DJ and Kevin have a great relationship and we’ve flirted around a few ideas before, but nothing serious. There’s a mutual admiration for what we each have been doing and what Kevin has built over there is truly incredible. Ultimately though for us, we’ve always been very committed to what we wanted to build with Black Adam. Black Adam was the character we wanted to bring to life and who we felt DJ was destined to play. Once we set our sites on this character over a decade ago it was hard to imagine DJ playing anyone else.”
Of course, Johnson has probably met with every major studio in the industry several times over at this stage of his career, while Marvel are also known for meeting with a lot of talent just for kicks, eventually circling back around to them years down the line once a suitable character crops up. With Black Adam set to launch a major standalone franchise within the DCEU, though, it looks like he’ll be staying put for the foreseeable future.
