Even by the standards of a franchise that’s been in a state of constant fluctuation for years, the last month has been a roller-coaster of emotions for the DCU, its fans, and some of the current (and now former) stars of the show. Chief among them is Dwayne Johnson, who appears to have wasted 15 years steering Black Adam through development and onto the big screen.
Instead of changing the hierarchy of power as he so boldly proclaimed, the long-awaited blockbuster under-performed at the box office, generated accusations of financial irregularities, and ended up being thrown out on its ass by co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran, with any plans for sequels and spinoffs dead in the water.
In amongst the shockwaves reverberating out from The Rock’s short-lived tenure as a superhero, it was claimed that he’d turned down the chance to make a cameo appearance in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, having allegedly deemed it as being beneath him – even though he’s listed as a producer on the series via his Seven Bucks banner.
Dousing the 50 year-old’s reputation with even more gasoline, it’s now been offered that Johnson knocked back an invitation to lend his immense frame to The Flash, too, and fans are unsurprisingly having a field day with the scuttlebutt.
To be fair, even if he had agreed to drop by Ezra Miller’s solo spectacular, he’d probably be on the cutting room floor by now. After all, Henry Cavill has already been excised and Gal Gadot may well be following suit, but Johnson’s purported elitism to all things DC outside of Black Adam hasn’t endeared him to long-suffering supporters.