Dwayne Johnson is not suing DC or Warner Bros. – as far as the industry knows. But given the actor’s recent box office failure with Black Adam and his eventual exit alongside Superman actor, Henry Cavill, the rumors about DC getting sued have somehow become the general consensus. The epicenter of the claim remains yet to be discovered but it has already served its purpose – to get the people speculating about the state of affairs at the newly minted faction of DC.
So far, James Gunn and his co-CEO, Peter Safran, have been doing spectacularly well at the DC Studios. The proposed draft of Chapter 1 titled, Gods & Monsters, has pushed the crowd into a hyperdrive. No longer does the majority cry, scream, and beg to bring back the SnyderVerse but instead (for the first time in a long while) looks ahead to what DC has to offer in the coming decade. Black Adam was the last remaining morsel of the past and as such, needs to stay put.
Rumors About Dwayne Johnson Suing DC Debunked
Dwayne Johnson’s plight with respect to DC is a complicated one. He has loved the CBM franchise like he would his own flesh and blood. He has promoted, advocated, gushed, fanboy-ed, and pandered to the masses when it comes to DC and has perhaps been the most shamelessly vocal about his love for Superman and Black Adam among all existing nerds within the industry. It took him 15 long years to finally get that vision realized and it was more underwhelming than expected.
Despite The Rock’s ability to sell out theatres across the world, Black Adam was a solemn reminder that even The Great One can sometimes lose his touch. Soon after, Warner Bros. reshuffling its entire internal structure and hiring two new bosses led to the firing of Dwayne Johnson and the shelving of the rumored Black Adam sequel and the film’s consecutive spin-offs. The only logical next step to save the film was to prepone its release on the streamer and the actor’s silence regarding promoting its HBO Max launch was the first indication of Johnson’s discontent toward WB.
When Henry Cavill’s place in DC was unceremoniously disregarded and the Man of Steel had to publicly back out, especially after The Rock hyped up an arc building toward a much-awaited Black Adam v Superman showdown, the crowd took his silence as yet another indication of his growing humiliation in the face of disaster and corporate meltdowns. The scandalous rumors of Dwayne Johnson suing Warner Bros. emerged shortly after, taking over most of the white noise on the equally scandalous bird app. Unfortunately, none of it is true and The Rock remains as polite and civil about the whole incident as ever.
Why Would The Rock Suing DC Be a Supremely Bad Idea?
The recently merged Warner Bros. Discovery is currently flailing under an economic whiplash that was left behind as a result of the bad choices made by the previous management. Under David Zaslav’s direction and guidance, the studio has already dug itself out of the pit within 8-10 months while also delivering an excellent and creatively satisfying vision for WB’s future and reorienting the entire studio’s priorities to bring back classic IPs from the past.
One has to be very thick-headed to not realize that goliaths like WB do not leave behind loopholes in its clauses that can let any actor sue them if they are not given the number of films they were promised. “The studio always comes out on top” is the operating principle and The Rock should know better than to go to war with Warner Bros. because it would simply be the most foolish and reckless bloodbath ever recorded in the history of the media and entertainment industry.
Not only will suing WB ensure The Rock’s failure to gracefully bow out of DC but will put his future in the industry and with one of the biggest studios at risk. Studios will think twice before working with an actor who would go to such extreme lengths in the event of a fallout. The actor also doesn’t possess the substantial grounds to go to war since he was never absolutely guaranteed or promised a Black Adam 2 or even Henry Cavill’s return in a contract by the studio. In James Gunn’s own words: “We didn’t fire Henry. Henry was never cast.”
Additionally, The Rock already sat down for negotiations for an optional clause stating his return via an Elseworlds multiversal project. Suing WB does not help anybody get anything at this point.
Black Adam is available for streaming on HBO Max.
Source: The Comic Book Cast
