The Academy Awards are almost upon us to draw a line under the annual procession of self-congratulations and back-slapping that sees virtually every studio in Hollywood politicking in an attempt to get the upper hand. Throughout it all, nobody pegged Dwayne Johnson as a force to be reckoned with, but even the actor’s dismal 2022 has yielded him some personal recognition.
Warner Bros. understandably came in for widespread mockery when it completely and utterly seriously submitted Black Adam for a myriad of Oscars categories, but it’s The Rock who had the last laugh in the end. He may have been cast out of the DCU when James Gunn and Peter Safran swept in the door, but at least he’s got a pair of brand new trophies to show for it.
The end was predicted as being nigh when Johnson was named Favorite Movie Actor for Black Adam at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards, but the actor and producer has laughed in the face of his terrible year for all things DC to celebrate a double-whammy of victories.
You can’t fault Johnson’s ambition for using Black Adam and DC League of Super-Pets as two separate means of leveraging himself into a showdown opposite Superman in live-action and animation, even if each comic book adaptation under-performed at the box office, found itself immediately dismissed as canon when the new co-CEOs took over, and are now rendered completely obsolete in the grand scheme of things.
Let’s hope the 50 year-old has room on the shelf for his latest gongs, then, because that’s pretty much all he’s got to show for his short-lived association with DC.