Earlier this week, a piece in Variety had some insider info about Dwayne Johnson‘s rejected plans for the future of the DCU. Not long after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger in April, Johnson pitched a multiyear plan to new CEO David Zaslav directly that would lead to a showdown between Black Adam and Henry Cavill‘s Superman. Johnson’s move reportedly ruffled feathers internally. As one source puts it, “Dwayne went around everyone, which didn’t sit well.”
And DC fans know how Johnson’s pitch played out at this point: Cavill returned for a brief cameo as Superman in “Black Adam,” and that’s it. Weeks after that film’s premiere (and its lackluster reception), Zaslav hired James Gunn and Peter Safran as the new co-heads of DC Studios to chart a new direction forward. So, no, Black Adam Vs. Superman will not be the DCU’s main storyline moving forward, and Johnson’s days with DC Studios are seemingly over.
So how does Johnson feel about all this? Fans seemingly have an answer for that now, as The Direct reports that the actor took to Twitter yesterday to share a 90-second video that hints about the fallout between him and Warner Bros. Discovery over the DC Universe’s future. Throughout the video, Johnson spoke about “having the guts to fail” and how that “ties into this whole thing” (ostensibly a reference to his rejected plans for Black Adam). As Johnson continued, he claimed having the guts to fail is more important than the desire to become successful and famous and that he’s happy that he still has that quality at his age. “Guts over desire,” Johnson repeated at the end of the video. Read a full transcription of the video below:
“A thought I wanted to share with you guys. There’s a good friend of mine named Inky Johnson, you guys should follow him. He’s always got great perspective, grounding perspective. He keeps it raw. He keeps it real. He said something that was really profound that I feel ties into this whole thing: … he talked about having the guts to fail. And the reason why I bring that back around to you guys is having the guts to fail compared to having the desire to be famous, having the desire to succeed.”
“But I have found in life, that the desire to become famous, the desire to succeed will never be as powerful as having the guts to fail. And I love that, because I look back at my own life, and around every corner, and still today– Look, I’m a Tyrannosaurus Rex, I’m 58,000 years old, but I still have that. And that’s my lead foot. I’m just having the guts to fail, around every corner. And that leads my decisions. That allows me to take big swings. Get my ass kicked on some of them. Fail at some of them. But then, also succeed at some of them. So, I will always take guts over desire. Have a great week and let’s get after it. This is our year. 2023. Guts over desire.”
But is this situation really a matter of guts over desire, or that Dwayne Johnson has a massive ego that he thought could overpower Warner Bros. execs over the DCU’s future? Johnson still appears oblivious to the fact that most moviegoers didn’t take to “Black Adam,” and that more of his rendition of the antihero probably isn’t what DCU fans want. Combine that with stories that Johnson wasn’t the easier star to work with on the “Black Adam” set, and it looks like this whole situation is an ego check Johnson doesn’t want to face. So is this the end of DC Studios’ relationship with Johnson? That remains unclear, and Johnson is still one of the biggest movie stars on the planet. But the actor’s Twitter video yesterday hints that he may be done with the DCU after all.
Up ahead, Johnson stars in “Red One,” an action-adventure Christmas film for Amazon Prime Video set to hit the streamer this coming holiday season.
