There are few better hype men in the industry than Dwayne Johnson, but the actor and producer’s impenetrable armor suffered a serious dent when Black Adam failed spectacularly to change the hierarchy of power in the DC universe, after we’d been beaten into submission by the claim being made so often.
Not even reaching $400 million at the global box office is disastrous for a project that found the world’s biggest movie star headlining a $200 million blockbuster set in cinema’s most bankable genre, with Henry Cavill even getting caught in the crossfire after his announcement of a full-time Superman return ended in nothing short of embarrassment.
Johnson has been keeping himself plenty busy, though, with Amazon’s festive action comedy Red One currently in front of camera, while he’s been making a regular habit of touting his latest extracurricular activities online. In that vein, the latest tease for his ongoing partnership with Under Armor finds The Rock rallying the troops, although his sentiment is a touch ironic given the fate that befell his long-gestating passion project.
In the Seven Bucks head honcho’s defense, he did go for it, things simply didn’t turn out as planned. Johnson might be trying to rewrite the history books when it comes to Black Adam, but nobody’s forgotten his references to “Phase One,” the plans for spinoffs, and his continuous praising of Cavill’s Kal-El, which yielded nothing more than leaving the pair of them on the outside of the DCU looking in.
