It hasn’t been long since Dwayne Johnson suddenly grew from a regular hunk in the Hollywood action industry to a crowd-favorite leading man dominating every square inch of the box office. Long gone are the days of a nightmare-inducing CGI face of the Scorpion King haunting our days. Long gone are the days of bad G.I. Joe films. The Rock now finds himself a member of the top-tier name-brand actors club, and as such has been a similarly endowed star with anything but a lack of choices in front of him.
Dwayne Johnson Was Offered a Part in Suicide Squad (2016)
Black Adam was a culmination of years of pitching and endeavors on The Rock’s part to headline a DC character on the silver screen. And although he finally got to play the part and face the Son of Krypton and hype up the masses, it still felt like an element was missing from the narrative. In the end, the box office disaster which ricocheted in the aftermath of the film’s release left Dwayne Johnson stranded in the desert outside the gates of DC HQ and in a potential Elseworlds initiative.
However, before Black Adam could become a full-fledged movie, a pitch was made regarding the superhero’s entry into the DC universe via David Ayer’s 2016 film, Suicide Squad. Hiram Garcia, producer and frequent collaborator with The Rock, later claimed in an interview how the actor was pitched for an end-credits scene in the anti-villain team-up movie:
“There was talk of him being utilized right at the end of something, but it was just conversations and that was many regimes ago.”
Also read: Suicide Squad: Why Releasing the Ayer Cut is a Bad Idea
Unfortunately, even though Suicide Squad held great potential, it turned out to be yet another box office failure which managed to earn a worldwide collection of $746.8M and yet holds a rating of 26% on Rotten Tomatoes, lesser than even Black Adam’s paltry 39%
Was Suicide Squad a Good Option For Dwayne Johnson?
With a foundation in comedic timing, The Rock has found a surefire way to not only pull the masses to the theatres but win over his audience as well. But as superhuman as he may be in his power to sell out stadiums, arenas, and the box office, not all the options available to him were the epitome of box office blockbusters, even though it meant he could get to play a dream role that he has been pitching for the past 15 years.
Suicide Squad not only would mean limiting the choices available to him even further but it would have also taken away the ability to narrate a fully fleshed-out story, having to manage a shared story with the rest of the squad and save the world from the apocalypse at the same time (but then again, he would have simply exchanged one grand box office flop with another). On the other hand, Dwayne Johnson’s entry in 2016 as Black Adam could have left the door open for a spin-off project, and a further build-up toward a showdown against his comic world arch nemesis, Shazam.
Even though a secondary role did not align with his vision at the time, The Rock gaining a foothold in DC alongside the Task Force X villains would have propelled him into the plots, arcs, and stories forming in the franchise since 2016, with writers and directors finding a way to incorporate an anti-villain of such potential in future arcs – perhaps even get a part in the incredibly successful James Gunn sequel, The Suicide Squad.
Suicide Squad and Black Adam are available for streaming on HBO Max.
Source: The Wrap
