Dwayne Johnson's comments about Superman casting during Black Adam's San Diego Comic-Con panel were a big letdown, but it may be exactly the kind of pressure Warner Bros. needs to finally bring Henry Cavill back to the DCEU. Cavill hasn't shot any scenes as Superman since Justice League's summer 2017 reshoots with Joss Whedon, and there's currently no announced plans to bring him back. Even so, that hasn't stopped Dwayne Johnson from constantly hyping up a potential confrontation between Superman and Black Adam, and his support of Cavill as Superman might be what it takes to finally get the Man of Steel star back in the red cape again.
Dwayne Johnson was already in talks to play Black Adam as early as 2007, just over three years before Cavill was even cast as Superman for Zack Snyder's Man of Steel. Development for The Rock's first appearance as Black Adam was in limbo for years before the movie finally started production, but Cavill has faced the opposite issue after several appearances, as the future of the DCEU's Superman has been up in the air since 2017. Despite Johnson's long road to Black Adam, that never stopped him from hyping up the character's impending arrival, and a lot of that hype has focused on the idea of a match between his Black Adam and Cavill's Superman.
Back in December 2013, Cavill shared a picture of a meeting with Johnson on Instagram, and a few days later The Rock shared Black Adam and Superman fan art on Twitter, hyping up the idea of the confrontation and emphasizing his close relationship with Cavill. The teases have been fairly steady since then, reaching a crescendo with Johnson's recent Comic-Con comments about Superman casting and the potential of Cavill's return. Johnson could easily be stirring the pot to pressure Warner Bros. Discovery to take finally take action on bringing back Cavill as Superman, but even if that's not his intention, it's certainly the effect, as Henry Cavill's Superman was one of the biggest trending topics following DC's Hall H presentation.
The DCEU Has a Superman Problem
The DCEU launched with Zack Snyder's Man of Steel in 2016 before introducing Batman and Wonder Woman (with cameos teasing other Justice League members) in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016, setting the stage for an epic Justice League trilogy. Justice League was initially set to resurrect Superman after his death at the end of Batman v Superman and take the hero to the next step of his character arc, which would eventually culminate in him becoming the ideal version of the character at the end of Justice League 3. Instead, the studio abandoned Snyder's original plan, bringing in Joss Whedon to conduct heavy rewrites and reshoots, crippling Superman's story and giving Cavill a highly memed digital upper lip to remove the mustache he'd grown for Mission: Impossible - Fallout. The original Superman story was finally revealed with the release of Zack Snyder's Justice League, but by that time Henry Cavill hadn't put on the cape in four years and it wasn't clear if he ever would again.
During Man of Steel's press tour, before Snyder's involvement in Justice League was even announced, he said establishing Superman was the most important part of building a larger DC universe: "Justice League is a top-down affair in my opinion...you have to get Superman's house in order...I do think there's an opportunity to think about how you might introduce other DC characters and whether that's a Justice League movie, or whether that's just a way of expanding Superman's universe, those are things that I think - that's the next conversation..." Snyder's approach proved controversial, but most people would agree with his sentiment that Superman has to be at the heart of any growing DC movie franchise. WB's inability to grow the DCEU beyond Snyder, who hasn't directed any DC movies since in 2017 (not counting Zack Snyder's Justice League), can be largely attributed to their failure to maintain Superman's presence in any meaningful way.
Snyder's initial plan for the DCEU involved five movies about Superman, developing him into the iconic hero with each installment. The story would bring in a number of other Justice League members and culminate in a confrontation with Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips in Justice League 3, while other directors were to take the characters on for additional side franchises. In the five years after abandoning that plan (which would have been completed and released by now had they maintained their course), the most WB has done for Superman is a headless cameo in Shazam! and a faceless shadowy cameo in Peacemaker. If there were a Superman actively appearing in other movies - with a solo movie at least in development - those cameos would be a lot more impactful. Unfortunately, with Superman's DCEU future remaining a total mystery for five years, the empty context gives the multiple faceless Henry Cavill-esque cameos a sort of awkward irony.
The Rock's Black Adam Approach Needs the DCEU to Bring Back Superman
Outside of those faceless cameos, Dwayne Johnson has been Superman's biggest champion. The Rock is an entertainer with experience hyping up crowds and setting and delivering on expectations, and he's been hyping up the idea of his Black Adam facing Henry Cavill's Superman for six years. Even his oft-repeated Black Adam tagline "the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is about to change" is an implicit nod to Cavill's Superman as he's the only established character in the DCEU's "hierarchy of power" who could stand toe-to-toe with Black Adam. Unfortunately, Cavill's connection to the Snyderverse, which WB claims they're trying to move away from, complicates that question. Excluding Snyder's DCEU movies and Henry Cavill's Superman, what other existing "hierarchies of power" would Black Adam be referring to? Simply facing more immediate superheroes like Shazam and the "Shazamily" certainly won't meet the high bar set by that tagline.
In the comics, Black Adam isn't traditionally a Superman villain and the characters have only faced off a handful of times, so there's no inherent requirement for Johnson's Black Adam to fight Superman, especially not in Black Adam's origin movie; however, as The Rock knows from his wrestling days, a good heel is important to rile up the audience and generate heat for the face. Following that template, Johnson would know that one of the best ways to grow hype for Black Adam, whose popularity pales compared to Superman, is to set them on a collision course. Positioning Black Adam as a potential anti-hero also adds to his value as a heel to Cavill's Superman, forming a sort of rivalry as opposed to the more simplistic good vs evil of Superman's other DCEU (or Snyderverse) villains like Zod or Darkseid.
Johnson's Superman support may not have gotten WB to fix their Superman failures yet, but as the character's biggest cheerleader, he keeps Superman front and center in the conversation, making it harder for WB to ignore the situation as time goes on. By anchoring Black Adam's importance around his relationship to the DC Universe's "hierarchy of power," and using promises of a future fight with Superman to hype up fans, Johnson is setting audience expectations, and unless Black Adam crashes and burns at the box office, Johnson will continue leveraging a Superman confrontation to keep Black Adam as high on DC's hierarchy of power as he can.
The Rock's Disappointing Superman Casting Comments Pressure WB to Bring Back Cavill
Leading up to San Diego Comic-Con, Deadline indicated there was "buzz that Henry Cavill will put in a surprise appearance to talk up more Superman." Just a few weeks earlier Johnson had reshared a new image on Twitter featuring a mashup of Cavill's Superman logo and Johnson's Black Adam logo where he emphasized the need to "always listen to the audience" reassuring "I hear you & I always got you." As a result, anticipation was high for some kind of Superman news in Hall H, prompting a fan question for Johnson about who would win in a fight between Superman and Black Adam. Having discussed this many times before, Johnson began answering the question by comparing the characters' traditional comic book power levels before he suddenly and unnecessarily veered into the sore subject of Superman casting by concluding with "I guess it probably all depends on who's playing Superman. I will just say that," drawing boos from the Hall H crowd.
Johnson is experienced enough with these situations, and particularly this topic, to use the question to generate hype for Black Adam - the movie the panel was actually about - or even give another tease for a future conflict between Black Adam and Superman in a potential sequel. Instead, he used the moment on the big stage at one of the year's biggest comic book movie events to deflate excitement over rumors of Cavill's return. While the panel was intended to hype up the DCEU's next two movies, Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods, it also made Henry Cavill's Superman one of the biggest trending topics following the event.
The odd thing about Johnson's answer to the question is that there was no need to highlight the DCEU's Superman casting problem at all. He was surely aware of the excitement over the Cavill rumor and based on his reassurance that "I hear you & I always got you," he should be expected to know full well how his answer would be received. In an interview with ComicBook.com after the Hall H presentation, Johnson gave some more nuanced and candid thoughts about Superman casting, praising Henry Cavill's Superman as "the Superman of our generation" explicitly stating "you got a lot of people who advocate on Henry's behalf and root for him to win, and I do root for him to win. And at the end of the day, he's a phenomenal Superman."
The other interesting thing he highlighted is his own incentive for the return of Henry Cavill, whose manager is also Johnson's business partner, Dany Garcia. Johnson and Garcia co-founded Seven Bucks Productions, which is one of the production companies behind both Shazam! movies and Black Adam, with Johnson, Dany Garcia, and her brother Hiram Garcia - Seven Bucks' president of production - all listed as producers. There's a clear business interest in them not only bringing Superman into their corner of the DCEU, but also in bringing back Henry Cavill. Whether Johnson was coyly putting pressure on WB by letting the air out of the Cavill hype in front of a huge crowd, or even if he simply didn't realize the disappointment people would feel from that revelation, the end result is still an increased pressure on Warner Bros. Discovery to ask Cavill to get his cape out of the closet.
At the end of the day, the DCEU's Superman future, be it Cavill or otherwise, is still up in the air nearly a decade after Cavill's first appeared in Man of Steel. The DCEU needs a Superman to finally move forward after five years of WB failing to escape the shadow of the Snyderverse, and The Rock's advocacy for Cavill's return to the role might be the pressure it takes for Superman to finally return. Whether that means picking up where the Snyderverse left off (which is still entirely possible since the new DCEU movies don't make the Snyderverse unsalvageable) or pivoting in a new direction, The Rock understands Black Adam's popularity depends on an established hierarchy of power in the DCEU with Superman at the top, and the best way to make that happen is by bringing back Henry Cavill.
