Welp, it was Dwayne Johnson’s fault. Although we are not the ones saying it, it does seem like The Rock may have found himself in a pickle due to his alleged massive ego. As revealed by The Wrap in a controversial article, The Rock has been directly blamed for the failure of Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
With the massive egoistic problems that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been dealing with, it is rumored that he did not have a friendly relationship with the people over at DC Studios. The actor apparently refused to appear in a cameo that could have introduced the Justice Society of America in the DCU with Aldis Hodge’s Hawkman alongside Black Adam.
Dwayne Johnson Caused The Failure of Shazam 2
Much like the ill-fated The Fast and the Furious franchise, Dwayne Johnson also seems to have a problem with DC Studios and the DCU. Promising to usher in a new era of the DCEU, Johnson supported every decision that James Gunn and Peter Safran took (except removing Henry Cavill) and finally he backed out of the situation.
According to reports, the Red Notice actor was given a choice to bring Aldis Hodge’s character of Hawkman into the mix of things. A post-credit scene was proposed to the actor wherein the Justice Society of America or the JSA (which has a pivotal role in the upcoming future) was hinted at by the director. As per The Wrap, Dwayne Johnson vetoed the scene which caused James Gunn to bring in his wife Jennifer Holland for a cameo in the movie.
The people clearly did not like The Rock’s behavior as they took to Twitter to either support the decision or to rally against it.
Another franchise ruined because of dwaynes ego pic.twitter.com/pipGDGVDOK
— MUT/MT Plug/badge/myteam grinder (@mtplug_grinder) March 21, 2023
Had The Rock been the villain in Shazam 2, the movie would've made $600m globally easy.
— Chris Harihar (@ChrisHarihar) March 21, 2023
— Matt Jarbo (@mjarbo) March 21, 2023
WB trying to blame the rock for Shazam failure
— happy flowers team (@ManCityKD) March 21, 2023
but the JSA were the best part of Black Adam, this would’ve been so cool
— Harley (@harleysuniverse) March 21, 2023
Dwanye's ego is very frustrating, I think he's very disconnected from what people actually want to see, and he's pretty much preventing other actors from furthering their careers at this point. It's odd seeing as his start in Hollywood was from being helped in by Brendan Fraser
— alfoxie (@alfoxie) March 21, 2023
After The Rock rejected the scene, Jennifer Holland, wife of co-head James Gunn was brought in for a quick cameo. It was too much for the director of Shazam 2 to bear and he personally requested Dwayne Johnson for a cameo which he refused.
Dwayne Johnson Wanted Black Adam Out of the DCU
As the report goes, Johnson wanted the entirety of the DCU to revolve around Henry Cavill and Dwayne Johnson’s characters of Superman and Black Adam respectively. The actor reportedly did not include Zachary Levi’s Shazam in the mix.
After the shakeup at the DCU, The Rock apparently made a decision with James Gunn. The duo decided that Black Adam will stay away from the first chapter of the newly forged DCU’s storytelling. The Red One actor also denied any JSA actor to make any kind of cameo in the movie following which several characters from the Peacemaker series had to be used.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is currently screening in theaters across the world for the people to see.
Source: Twitter
