Credit: The Rock InstagramAt one point, Dwayne Johnson was an American football player. He may have been having a “Multiverse” moment when asked about his thoughts on the Oscars red carpet on both his and Henry Cavill’s sacking from the DC Universe.
Johnson told Variety:
Our audience score was in the 90s…It’s almost like when you have a pro football team, and your quarterback wins championships, and your head coach wins championships, and then a new owner comes in and says, ´Not my coach, not my quarterback. I´m going to go with somebody new’.
You can hear more of Johnson’s thoughts on the topic in the conversation below:
On the surface, the decision by new co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran to offload Dwayne Johnson and Henry Cavill from the DCU left us scratching our heads. They starred in ostensibly solid movies in Black Adam (2022) and Man of Steel (2013).
Related: DC Finally Announces New ‘Superman’ Movie & Addresses Henry Cavill Debacle
However, those movies weren’t flawless by any means. The audience scores may have been in the 90s. However, many Superman and Black Adam fans felt both iterations neglected the true character and heritage of the characters, in the case of Black Adam not having Egyptian symbols in the movie.
As for Zach Snyder’s Superman and the DC Snyderverse overall? Well, there’s a reason someone else is at the helm now. The reason is that it failed. Not obvious to the casual dc fans but apparent to the comic book superfan, Zach Snyder, recklessly distorted and misinterpreted Superman’s core values in Man of Steel (2013).
The beauty of Superman as a character is he is a near invulnerable god. He harnesses his powers, when necessary, out of unyielding goodness.
Superman doesn’t kill Zod; he doesn’t need to. And he doesn’t stand back and watch his father get swallowed up by a Tornado either to hide his true identity. Superman has had enough parental tragedy losing his Kryptonian father, Jor-El, not to mention the entirety of Krypton!
A universally loved character like Superman deserves a writer who understands narrative purpose. It looks like it has found one in James Gunn.
Henry Cavill is a fabulous and talented actor. He cared about the character and should have been given more Screentime (and dialogue) as Superman. He even supported the football team; he figured Clark Kent would have followed the Kansas City Chiefs!
It is now an opportunity for another actor. The role is yet to be cast.
However, it appears Dwayne Johnson claims his removal was purely down to new owners when this isn’t clear. He had more input in his ousting than he’s letting on here. Johnson pitched a multi-year Black Adam plan in April last year (2022) to Warner Bros CEO David Zaslav (amid a DC overhaul after the Warner Bros/Discovery merger). His vision would end in a climactic battle between himself and Henry Cavill’s Superman.
The plan was ditched after the relative box office failure of Black Adam. Furthermore, sources add Johnson’s demands, including a production credit on DC League of Super-Pets (2022), in which he had little involvement, and a request for a tequila bar at a PG 13-rated New York premiere of Black Adam soured the relationship.
Related: Dwayne Johnson Compares Black Adam to Captain America In Strange Tweet
So, Dwayne Johnson claims they were removed unfairly and had a point with his football analogy; after all, the pair did an excellent job in their respective roles and given a more robust creative team behind them and some better coaching, they could have gone on to win even more acting “Championships.”
Why do you think Dwayne Johnson and Henry Cavill were removed from their roles in the DCU? Who do you think will replace them? Let us know in the comments below.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect the sentiments of Inside the Magic as a whole.