No matter how long you let the dust settle on the Superman, Black Adam, and Henry Cavill-led Superman sequel debacle, it still looks like an absolute mess. Either way, Cavill was revealed as Superman for the first time in years in the post-credits scene for Black Adam. Immediately following this, somebody senior enough and serious enough at Warner Bros. told Dwayne Johnson and Cavill to start singing from the rooftops about a Man Of Steel Sequel and Cavill’s return.
This occurred just days before James Gunn and Peter Safran went public with their roadmap for phase one of a brand-new DCU. A roadmap that reversed everything Cavill and Johnson announced. So what the hell happened?
There is no way Warner Bros. higher-ups didn’t know what was in the Gunn/Safran plan and the upcoming announcement. They would have seen it weeks before the reveal. PR departments and marketing teams would have been working on it. Press releases were being drafted. Graphics were being prepared. Venues were booked for the press conference.
So why were Johnson and Cavill under the impression they were moving forward? Who was telling them to get out there and tell the world about Cavill’s return to the role of Superman beyond just the post-credits scene?
Either way, Dwayne Johnson sounds like he is over it. On the champagne carpet for the ceremony, he was asked about this by the correspondent from Variety and he had this to say:
“All that I can do, and all that we could do when we were making ‘Black Adam,’ was to put our best foot forward and surround ourselves with the best people and deliver the best movie we could. Our audience score was in the 90s. Critics took a couple of shots, but that’s just the business of it.
It’s almost like when you have a pro football team and your quarterback wins championships and your head coach wins championships and then a new owner comes in and says, ‘Not my coach, not my quarterback. I’m going to go with somebody new.’”
“Not my coach, not my quarterback.”? This still doesn’t explain why they were given a green light to be out there talking future Black Adam and Superman projects while the whole of DC Studios and most of the top table at Warner Bros. know this was never going to happen.
It’s likely that they were the sacrificial lambs. Warner Bros. knew Black Adam wasn’t going to be a massive smash, so they let the news of the Cavill appearance leak out to drum up interest and put more bums on seats. However the news would have been met with a shrug if it was known that would be his last appearance as Supes, so nobody told the duo what was planned, and let them talk up something that was never going to happen to make Black Adam seem like an important thing in the universe. All about the $$$.
Looks like DC may have done the same thing with that Shazam cameo leak over the weekend.
Check back every day for new content at Last Movie Outpost.
To like us on Facebook Click Here
To follow us on Twitter Click Here
See our YouTube channel Click Here
