Dwayne Johnson Finally Speaks On Henry Cavill Returning As Superman And DC’s Reaction

Dwayne Johnson breaks his silence on Henry Cavill and DC, comparing the situation to football team shake-ups.

By Zack Zagranis | Updated

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The Rock says DC replacing Henry Cavill is not his fault. The Variety Twitter account posted a clip from the Oscars red carpet last night where Dwayne Johnson broke his silence over the Black Adam Superman debacle. Johnson compared Cavill’s (and possibly his own) firing to a football team switching managers.

“It’s almost like when you have a pro football team, and your quarterback wins championships, and the head coach wins championships. And you have a new owner, and the new owner comes in and says, not my coach, not my quarterback.”

Dwayne Johnson

It’s not clear if Dwayne Johnson is referring to himself and Henry Cavill or Cavill and someone else. The former wrestler also doesn’t explain what “championships” he’s referring to.

What is obvious is the identity of the “new owner.” That would be James Gunn, who, along with producer Peter Safran was put in charge of DC’s new DCU cinematic endeavor late last year. Gunn has been very vocal about his plans to reinvent Superman in the DCU without Henry Cavill in the role, news that Man of Steel fans haven’t taken very well.

Indeed many fans of Warner Bros. now defunct DCEU took the Superman cameo at the end of Black Adam to mean that Henry Cavill was coming back to DC, an assumption shared by Cavill and Dwayne Johnson. Some have gone as far as to threaten legal action over what they see as false advertising. Meanwhile, The Rock has been pretty quiet ever since DC laid the smackdown on Cavill’s future as Superman.

It could be that Dwayne Johnson couldn’t speak because he was too busy eating crow. Johnson has been licking his wounds ever since Black Adam received a less-than-stellar reception from critics. He was so gung-ho about portraying the character he convinced DC to save Black Adam for his own movie instead of making him the villain in Shazam! Black Adam’s lukewarm box office must have been a hard pill for the actor to swallow.

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On top of that, Johnson was the one who demanded Henry Cavill appear at the end of Black Adam, teasing his return to the DCEU, causing some fans to blame him for getting their hopes up. It’s no wonder the Jungle Cruise star has been relatively mum about the subject.

Another thing apparent from the red carpet interview is that Dwayne Johnson is in denial about how hard Black Adam failed at the box office. First off, Johnson told Variety that Black Adam’s audience score was in the 90s, something easily debunked by a quick trip to the movie’s Rotten Tomatoes page. In addition, the actor said, “Critics took a couple of shots,” severely downplaying Black Adam’s dismal reception by movie critics.

Delusional or not, The Rock did maintain an air of professionalism when discussing the Henry Cavill situation. By comparing the decision to remove The Witcher actor as Superman to a football team, Dwayne Johnson made it clear that he considers it a business decision and nothing personal.

In fact, all parties involved have been civil when discussing the matter publicly. James Gunn has admitted to having conversations with both Dwayne Johnson and Henry Cavill about their futures with DC and hasn’t ruled out casting the actors in different roles somewhere down the road.