DCU exile and cameo snob Dwayne Johnson’s fingerprints are still all over ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’

The latest full-length trailer for Shazam! Fury of the Gods has generated a surprisingly mixed response, with many fans taking issue with some CGI so poor it makes Thor: Love and Thunder look like Avatar: The Way of Water by comparison.

As you’d expect given their intertwined comic book history that stretches back decades and status as potential onscreen arch-enemies, Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam has been embedded deep into the conversation, too. While some think Zachary Levi has scored several easy victories over the deposed Man in Black, The Rock’s fingerprints are still over the project.

Sure, reports claim that he’d turned down a cameo appearance and didn’t hold Shazam! in very high esteem, but let’s not overlook that David F. Sandberg’s opening installment was the first feature produced by Seven Bucks that didn’t feature Johnson in any capacity as an on-camera performer.

He was even listed as an executive producer, and while that doesn’t appear to be the case second time around, Seven Bucks retains a stake in the success of Fury of the Gods. You couldn’t it up that the production company founded and overseen by a star who was dumped from the DCU after one movie will be slapped all over the credits of a second installment Johnson didn’t even want to be a part of, but Hollywood is nothing if not a strange place full of strange coincidences.

Is he going to be celebrating the success of Shazam! Fury of the Gods in a public forum? We’d be very, very surprised.