As the weeks go on we are slowly getting more and more DCEU updates and the Rock has now finally broken his silence about what’s happening with Black Adam. He released a statement last night talking about the conclusion of his meeting with James Gunn and it doesn’t sound too good. Black Adam of course released back at the end of October and it had a big post-credits scene with Henry Cavill Returning. In the aftermath of it, Dwayne started hyping up a Black Adam vs Superman movie but those plans went down the Dwayne when Cavill was kicked to the curb.
James Gunn has got a lot of backlash for it with pretty much everyone kicking off that Cavill is now gone. Because of this, it seemed inevitable that The Rock was out too and by the sounds of it he pretty much is. Throughout this video, we’re gonna be breaking down his statement and also going over our thoughts on what it means for the future of the DCU.
I know I’m doing a lot of DC videos at the moment but I actually put out a poll last night on Twitter asking whether I should cover this or the Across the Spider-Verse poster today and the people have spoken. So blame yourself you idiot, this is your fault. Also, follow me on Twitter and from now on… only people subscribed to Heavy Spoilers can vote in polls. Unlike most videos, where I read out the whole thing and talk about it, I think I’m gonna just respond to what’s said bit by bit.
The Rock’s Statement
Anyway, The Rock’s statement goes a little something like this:
My passionate friends,
Woah, mate, at least buy me dinner first.
I wanted to give you a long-awaited Black Adam
update regarding the character’s future in the new
DC Universe.
James Gunn and I connected, and Black Adam will
not be in their first chapter of storytelling.
However, DC and Seven Bucks have agreed to
continue exploring the most valuable ways Black
Adam can be utilized in future DC multiverse
chapters.
Now, I think this is quite an important paragraph and though a lot of people are saying that the Rock is out this actually kinda states the opposite. However, I don’t think it’s a guarantee and there are a number of things going on with what he’s saying here. Now just a lesson in life: if you’re ever in a corporate setting like a job interview or asking your boss something and you’ve been rejected from getting something. Say you asked for like an extra day’s holiday or something, I dunno. Anyway, if the person there responds by saying something like ‘I can try’ or ‘yeah, I’ll try and get that done.’ Then that person has absolutely no intention of doing it and they’re just saying I’ll try to shut you up and basically get you used to the idea that it might not happen so that you don’t complain when it doesn’t. That’s kind of the feeling I get with these constant statements, and there have been a number of them that have talked about how their movies and characters have been shut down but that DC is going to try and do something with them in the future.
What This Means For The Multiverse
Now the multiverse thing can really go one of two ways.
Either Gunn’s plan is that they do a reboot of the universe and then slowly build towards an event like Crisis On Infinite Earths that has everyone come back. Or, and this is a big or, they try the stuff with the new people and if it doesn’t work out then they can say “f**k it, multiverse” and bring the old characters back and try and use them in some way. He did say he planned on working with Henry in the future, and maybe that crisis will save DC from being in the crisis it’s in now, I tell ya.
Now personally, I am leaning more towards the latter because I don’t see why they’d reboot the entire universe and throw everyone out if they weren’t planning on that being successful. I feel like the old DCEU will very much be the plan b for if this doesn’t work out and that they’ll find a way to bring them back if Gunn’s plan doesn’t work.
Kinda mental that the Rock spent 15 years of his life trying to get black adam made, and he got potentially fired two months after its release. Like it was released on the 21st of October, and it’s now the 21st of December. Mental.
The Rock Continues Saying Stuff
Anyway, he continues to say.
James and I have known each other for years and
have always rooted for each other to succeed. It’s
no different now, and I will always root for DC (and
Marvel) to win and WIN BIG.
Now I have seen a lot of focus on this Marvel comment and that it might hint at him switching sides to the place that doesn’t constantly tell the fans they’re chumps. I think it’s just him basically saying that he wants both studios to win because he loves comic book movies. Might be him basically doing that thing though where you throw a little shot at your ex by posting a status about how you’ve been looking at another girl or some s**t.
He then says:
You guys know me, and I have very thick skin – and
you can always count on me to be direct with my
words.
These decisions made by James and DC leadership
represent their vision of DCU through their creative
lens.
After 15 years of relentless hard work to finally make
Black Adam, I’m very proud of the film we delivered for
fans worldwide. I will always look back on the fan
reaction to Black Adam with tremendous gratitude,
humility and love.
We did great.
Thanks mate.
The Rock Keeps Going
To my very passionate and vocal Black Adam/Super
Hero genre fans – I love you, THANK YOU, and I will
ALWAYS LISTEN TO YOU and do my best to deliver and
entertain you.
What a helluva month – now we all need some
Teremana!
Teremana is basically tequila… which… probably don’t need to say that.
Have a productive week and HAPPY HOLIDAYS to you
and your families!
D
Sounds like they took him into a room and had Henry Cavill walk out and tell him it’s over.
James Gunn then replied by saying Love @TheRock & I’m always excited to see what he & Seven Bucks do next. Can’t wait to collaborate soon.
So doing the whole teasing the future thing, and who knows, Gunn might wanna get his universe established and then bring them back. Again though, I don’t see why you do that unless your stuff isn’t working.
Is The Suicide Squad The New DC Flagship?
Now Gunn has put out numerous Twitter threads, and there was one the other day that dropped after there were numerous reports that all the big names were out, but he was keeping the Suicide Squad and Peacemaker cast. This rubbed people the wrong way, including me, because it seemed like he was keeping his own stuff and getting rid of everything else.
I’ve always said that though I don’t want a DCU reboot, I think that if that’s what they’re doing, they need to reboot the entire thing because then you’re just gonna have ties to the old stuff that you apparently don’t want. This stuff is still linked and will become even more confusing if they don’t.
For example, the Justice League show up at the end of Peacemaker. Peacemaker was in Suicide Squad… or the Suicide Squad, whatever it is. That had Harley Quinn, Waller and Rick Flagg in the previous Suicide Squad movie. That movie came off the back of Superman’s death in BvS, and it had Affleck and The Flash in it.
So it tied in with BVS which tied in with Man Of Steel and therefore it’s kinda like. Yeah, this is confusing if you say only Peacemaker and Suicide Squad are canon now.
Now Gunn has said that he will be keeping what works and getting rid of what doesn’t…so his stuff according to him. I’ve got into bloody twitter arguments over this with people saying that Gunn’s stuff is the only thing things that have done well and that critically it makes sense to focus on this stuff. However, when you compare the scores to the other DCU movies that are probably getting wiped, then they’re about the same.
Those movies also made money, with Aquaman being a billion-dollar franchise and Wonder Woman making 822 million. Even in the case of Wonder Woman 1984 and Suicide Squad, they made about the same amount of money. Both were released on HBO Max on day one, but ’84 had a lot of countries in lockdown due to it being dropped over Christmas. On HBO Max Suicide Squad got 4.2 million viewers though whereas Wonder Woman 1984 got 14 million which is quite a big difference. According to Samba TV, Peacemaker got 638,000 viewers in its first four days and if we compare that to She Hulk that got 5.74 million.
Now I like Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, but I don’t think the argument is there that only Gunn’s stuff is successful, and again, I think if you’re gonna get rid of stuff that you have to get rid of everything and start again. We can all bring our opinions into this stuff, but the numbers don’t lie on stuff, and that’s them in black and white.
What Gunn Said
Anyway in reaction to people kicking off Gunn put out this.
One of the things Peter & I were aware of when we took the job as heads of DC Studios was a certain minority of people online that could be, well, uproarious & unkind, to say the least.
Our choices for the DCU are based upon what we believe is best for the story & best for the DC characters who have been around for nearly 85 years. Perhaps these choices are great, perhaps not, but they are made with sincere hearts & integrity & always with the story in mind.
No one loves to be harassed or called names – but, to be frank, we’ve been through significantly worse. Disrespectful outcry will never, ever affect our actions.
We were aware there would be a period of turbulence when we took this gig, & we knew we would sometimes have to make difficult & not-so-obvious choices, especially in the wake of the fractious nature of what came before us.
But this means little to us in comparison to our jobs as artists & custodians in helping to create a wide & wonderful future for DC.
Gunn was then asked whether the stuff was true about only Suicide Squad getting kept, and he said:
I keep seeing posts with this untrue theory. We’re not recasting everyone except the Suicide Squad.
What Does This Mean For DC?
So could be taken one of two ways. Either the Suicide Squad is also completely recast, or there are other parts of the DCU that haven’t been recast either. Gal Gadot still hasn’t said anything, but I think the next person to issue a statement will be her. I imagine that if The Flash, Aquaman and Shazam 2 hadn’t had so much money put into them that they’d probably be announced as being out by now, but f**k knows what they’re doing.
They have cut the cameos with Cavill and Affleck in those upcoming movies so I think it would all be out.
Gunn did say that Gal wasn’t booted, but again, it could be open to interpretation and mean that they gave her the whole ‘ah mate, we’ll bring you back mate, just need to ask my mam if you can come round for tea. Honestly ill invite you to my birthday party and we can be best mates.’
Gunn has also stated that they are doing Elseworlds stories, and though this could just be stuff like The Batman 2 and Joker 2 they might, might bring some of these actors back for other stuff.
Now Robert Meyer Burnette and Kristian Harloff brought up some great points when talking about it that I think really sum up the situation and add some stuff to all the Momoa talk.
DC Need To Actually Commit
So some really great points there and I think that they could potentially set a date for the reboot and wrap some of this stuff up. I’ve always said that I wish they’d done a movie to kinda close things off rather than just announcing stuff on Twitter. I know the fox x-men universe gets a lot of hate but they actually managed to reboot and recast whilst continuing wolverine solo movies and having a send-off for the older characters. They did all that in-universe so that fans wouldn’t be annoyed and I wish that DC took that strategy too.
Again I think that if they’re gonna reboot, they need to fully reboot because there are always gonna be people who say they want the older stuff that could still technically be in universe.
Anyway, that’s the video, and let me know if you think that DC has hit rock bottom or if you are excited about what’s to come.
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