Without a ‘Black Adam’ sequel to fall back on, Dwayne Johnson promotes himself instead

In an alternate timeline – one that’s probably not to different from our own as fate would have it – the recently announced slate of DCU projects could have turned out a lot different, with Dwayne Johnson front-and-center.

It wouldn’t be too hard to imagine the new Kevin Feige-like figure of the studio – which obviously wouldn’t be James Gunn and Peter Safran in this instance – revealing an upcoming superhero schedule packed full of sequels, spinoffs, and offshoots featuring a bevvy of familiar faces.

Aquaman 3, Wonder Woman 3, Black Adam 2, Man of Steel 2, Shazam! 3, and a Justice Society spinoff would likely be among them, but instead we ended up with none of the above. In fact, Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller was the only pre-existing character to get their own headlining adventure, which wasn’t exactly what The Rock had in mind when he sought to change the hierarchy of power.

Never one to waste time, though, the actor and producer has instead been heavily promoting his most reliable asset; himself. In this case, it’s his ongoing partnership with Under Armor and its Project Rock collection, even if the “grit, grind and momentum” caption didn’t exactly apply to his DC tenure.

With Elseworlds now an official strand of the DCU, and the potential for multiversal crossovers, it can’t be ruled out 100 percent that we won’t see Johnson’s Black Adam again, even if it does seem incredibly unlikely given Gunn’s desire for a complete and total overhaul of everything that came before.