There is a special circle of Hollywood hell reserved for missed opportunities, and right at the center sits the Black Adam vs. Shazam fight that never happened. Not because the fans didn’t want it. Not because the comics didn’t set it up perfectly. But because Dwayne Johnson looked at decades of established canon, at the Joker to Shazam’s Batman, at one of the most iconic rivalries in superhero history, and said: “Nah, I’d rather fight Superman.”
The story has become legend by now. In 2022, Black Adam was supposed to end with a post-credits scene that would have changed everything. Hawkman, fresh from his team-up with the antihero, would recruit Shazam into the Justice Society of America. Zachary Levi was ready to suit up. The camera was ready to roll. And then Dwayne Johnson, whose ego apparently requires its own trailer on set, reportedly vetoed the entire thing.
The reason? Johnson wanted Black Adam to meet Superman instead. Not Shazam, his actual archenemy from the comics—a relationship as fundamental as Batman and the Joker, or Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. No, Johnson wanted Henry Cavill’s Superman, presumably because fighting the most powerful being on Earth would look better on the poster than fighting a teenager who says “Shazam” and turns into a flying strongman.
The fallout was immediate and spectacular. The post-credits scene we got instead—a Superman cameo that went nowhere—became symbolic of everything wrong with the DCEU’s final years: all tease, no payoff. Shazam! Fury of the Gods limped to the box office without the boost that a Black Adam connection might have provided. And Johnson’s dream of a Black Adam vs. Superman movie died when James Gunn rebooted the entire universe, leaving The Rock’s franchise hopes crushed under the weight of his own demands.
What’s particularly galling is that Johnson didn’t just nix the cameo—he reportedly refused to appear in the Shazam movies entirely. This is like Batman refusing to acknowledge the Joker exists because he wants to fight Darkseid first. The logic is baffling unless you understand that Johnson’s brand requires him to be the biggest guy in the room at all times, and Shazam’s lighthearted, family-friendly tone didn’t fit the grimdark aesthetic Johnson was trying to cultivate.
The irony is delicious. Black Adam, a film about a villain who learns to be a hero through his connection to a family, was sabotaged by its star’s inability to share the spotlight. The movie underperformed at the box office. The planned franchise evaporated. And the showdown everyone actually wanted to see—Black Adam vs. Shazam, the ancient wizard’s two champions clashing over their conflicting moral codes—never materialized.
Zachary Levi, for his part, has been diplomatic but clear about his disappointment. He shared reports of Johnson’s interference on social media with captions like “The truth shall set you free,” which is Hollywood speak for “I’m trying really hard not to say what I actually think.” The missed opportunity still stings for fans who watched the DCEU collapse under the weight of conflicting visions and competing egos.
In the new DC Universe under James Gunn, both characters will be rebooted with new actors. The fight we never got will remain permanently in the realm of what-ifs, alongside Nicolas Cage’s Superman and George Miller’s Justice League. But unlike those mythical lost projects, this one was actually within reach. The script was written. The actors were available. The check was signed.
All it needed was one less veto.
Witness the mess—stream Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods to see what could have been, then imagine the crossover that ego destroyed.
Also Read: The Batman Fight Scene That Ruined All Other Batman Fight Scenes