Uh…yeah, it definitely seems so. The Rock is getting a lot of heat online from DC fans as his interference within the company seems to have caused the death of his Black Adam and the DCEU as a whole.
Okay, it’s unfair to solely put the blame on Dwayne Johnson (aka: The Rock for the people who literally live under a rock) as he came into DC Studios far too late for his interpretation of Black Adam to resuscitate what was left of the DCEU at that point.
Still, if all of the recent reports and criticisms of The Rock are valid, then he was definitely the killing blow that ruined the DCEU.
So, for those who don’t know, there have been recent articles and reports flying out stating that the reason why Shazam 2 and Black Adam both failed was solely due to The Rock’s insistence on being “the guy” in the DCEU and having a matchup between his Black Adam and Henry Cavil’s Superman instead of between Adam and Zachary Levi’s Shazam.
“The Rock is a world-famous movie star and Superman is one of the most iconic superheroes ever. Why is this such a big deal?” all DC fans unfamiliar with Black Adam and Shazam comics are probably thinking right now. Well, the reason why this was such a big deal is due to Black Adam and Shazam being each’ other main antagonists in the comics, not Superman and Black Adam.
The Rock was essentially rewriting the entire character and history of Black Adam and shoehorning him into facing off against Superman in a battle that not only didn’t make too much sense at that point in the DCEU, but also ruined the Shazam movies. Now, Shazam was never that popular of a superhero to begin with, but some of his most famous battles and conflicts in the comics came up against Black Adam.
By completely refusing to fight off against Shazam in either the Black Adam movie or Shazam 2, The Rock doomed Shazam! Fury of the Gods to a fate of irrelevancy and a meandering purpose. I mean, Shazam 2 really should have been called A Meandering Misadventure as that would have been a more accurate title.
Whether The Rock likes it or not, Black Adam (who isn’t even in the Top-100 comic book characters in terms of appearances in comic issues, according to The Ranker) is the one of (if not the) archenemies of Shazam and it was a massive mistake to completely distance himself and his character from Levi’s Shazam. But, like I said earlier, I’m not putting full blame on The Rock as it was the Warner Bros. and DCEU executives who foolishly agreed to Johnson’s demands in the first place.
I know these executives are about as smart and wise as a rabid, hungry coyote, but didn’t they think it was somewhat important to connect these two characters in their cinematic universe. Every comic book fan of Shazam and/or Black Adam, who were the backbone/crutch of the movie-viewing audience, would have been expecting some conflict between the two characters in the three movies released about them (Shazam 1, Shazam 2, Black Adam).
To reject decades worth of character arcs, plotting, relationships, etc. in favor of listening to a Hollywood actor that (to my knowledge) has little to none experience in scriptwriting/storytelling is almost as bad as The Justice League. If The Rock was unwilling to play the part with his character involved in a Shazam storyline, then they should have fired him and cast someone more malleable.
No one should have been bigger than the DC brand…and, unfortunately, that mentality was seemingly lost during the final days of the DCEU.
Images Source: Featured Image: (DC/Warner Bros. Discovery) (Black Adam – Official Trailer 2 – YouTube)
Other Sources: (Ranker.com) (The 100 Most Published Superheroes, Ranked By Comic Book Appearances (ranker.com))
