In his career, Dwayne Johnson’s name and star power tends to overwhelm the characters he plays. Figures in features like San Andreas or Red One are just variations on his real-life media personality rather than Johnson portraying a fictional standalone entity. Still, a few notable characters have become associated with Johnson. There’s Maui from the Moana movies, for one. Then there’s Luke Hobbs, his Fast & Furious villain-turned-hero who has gone on to become a staple of that franchise. The titular lead role of Black Adam was also similar to these figures, at least on paper.
Then there’s a character from a Shane Black directorial effort that never got off the ground. Playing this figure would’ve meant Johnson was inhabiting a fictional hero that dates back to the early 1930s. Playing this figure would have ensured that Johnson was stepping into a much larger pop culture legacy than just his own. Alas, this modern feature film adaptation of Doc Savage didn’t come to fruition, even though it got oh so close to being a reality.
The Early Days of Shane Black’s Doc Savage
Doc Savage was a pulp magazine fixture of the early 20th century whose entire gimmick was that he had every talent under the sun. He had the wits of a scientist, the keen eye of a detective, the fists of a warrior, and more. He was like Sherlock Holmes, Batman, Tarzan, and countless other classic heroes all rolled into one. Despite Doc Savage’s enormous pop culture legacy, the character’s only major feature film adaptation was the 1975 box office failure Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, which starred Ron Ely as the titular lead.
Black was hired to helm a major Doc Savage motion picture in 2010, though it would take six years for Johnson to enter this production. The actor announced he was headlining Doc Savage in May 2016, with Johnson stating Doc Savage was the “#World’sFirstSuperhero”. This hashtag suggested Doc Savage could serve as a quasi-substitute for any kind of Black Adam movie that was still in limbo at that point. After signing on to play this character in 2014, no momentum had been made regarding Johnson’s Black Adam in the DC Extended Universe.
If DC wasn’t knocking on Johnson’s door, he’d go headline a different kind of superhero movie anchored by a figure who even preceded Superman in the history books. Doc Savage also inevitably appealed to Johnson thanks to his clear fondness for old-school jungle adventure movies. Between Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, the two Jumanji installments, and Jungle Cruise, this subgenre of escapist cinema obviously has a special place in Johnson’s heart. Doc Savage could’ve allowed him to further explore this territory.
Another Instagram post from Johnson hinted that Doc Savage was making serious headway and could start filming in 2017. Before all that, though, Black had to direct The Predator, which began production in February 2017. Johnson, meanwhile, had a ton of projects to anchor in 2017, including Rampage and Skyscraper. By the end of 2017, cameras still hadn’t started rolling on Doc Savage, though in December 2017, Variety reported it was one of several high-profile Johnson star vehicles in development.
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How Did Doc Savage Perish?
In April 2018, Johnson delivered the devastating news that his Doc Savage movie had become tangled up with a foe even this ancient superhero couldn’t solve: legal problems. Rights issues related to Doc Savage prevented the project from becoming a reality. Presumably because of the character’s relatively obscure status, Sony/Columbia Pictures and Original Film (the two entities financing this project) weren’t rushing to save Doc Savage. There were other tentpoles (including ones headlined by Johnson) these entities could finance instead, without having to deal with so many lawyers.
Since then, the only further news on any live-action Doc Savage project has been news in early 2020 that Sony and Original FIlm were trying to launch a Doc Savage TV show. Nothing else ever came out of that endeavor. Johnson and Black, meanwhile, have gotten no closer to working together thanks to Johnson focusing on Black Adam and Red One in the early 2020s. The increasingly erratic box office track record of superhero movies (including Sony’s own titles like Kraven the Hunter) likely made getting Doc Savage off the ground even more of a challenge.
Audiences craving costly retro-adventure movies starring Dwayne Johnson don’t have to look far given the features he’s headlined over the last decade. The Dwayne Johnson/Shane Black Doc Savage never materialized, but its cinematic influences certainly seeped into other Johnson star vehicles. Even so, there are undoubtedly die-hard Doc Savage fans out there frustrated that this high-profile film adaptation of the #World’sFirstSuperhero never swooped into theaters.
Black Adam is now streaming on Max.
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