Now that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is officially a DCEU superhero (or villain) in the upcoming Black Adam, does he think it’s finally time to take down that other extended universe, Marvel?
In a red carpet interview with the Associated Press at the movie’s premiere event, Johnson revealed his thoughts on the matter.
“And do I think we’re going to take any kind of bite out of Marvel?” he said. “That answer is unequivocally no.”
Johnson said that competing with Marvel isn’t really his goal. “Because to me as we build out the DC universe, ushering a new era of the DC universe, that to me is not my lead foot. It’s not our goal to take a bite out of Marvel.”
That doesn’t mean he bears any ill will toward the company. In fact, he explained that he was friends with the Marvel people, and that he admires all the work done by the company and its president Kevin Feige.
“What they’ve done is incredible. What Kevin Feige has done is incredible. And I love those guys. They’re all my friends and they are largely responsible for the economic drive of our business for almost two decades. So we don’t want to be Marvel.”
What he really wants, he said, is to be his own thing that doesn’t have to take down Marvel.
“We wanna be DC. And [do things] how we do things, so that’s what I want. I don’t want to take a bite of that apple. I want to grab a new apple. And I want to create from there.”
Black Adam crashes into theaters on Oct. 21.