Post-credits scenes are part and parcel of the blockbuster business, but Dwayne Johnson‘s fortunes have been mixed when it comes to stingers teasing what’s to come.
In DC League of Super-Pets, the actor voiced no less than three roles to try and drum up interest in a sequel, which ended up amounting to nothing when the animated adventure disappointed at the box office and ended up being swept under the rug. He then invested an inordinate amount of time getting Henry Cavill back as Superman for Black Adam, which again was rendered worthless almost immediately.
That makes it all the more ironic that Fast X literally gave The Rock the Cavill treatment by withholding his surprise return as Luke Hobbs until the mid-credits, only for the information to be made widely available on the internet as soon as the premiere had finished, with star Vin Diesel and director Louis Leterrier then wasting no time in explaining how they brokered a peace treaty between the formerly feuding action heroes.
For those of a cynical nature, it would be the funniest thing in the world were Fast 11 to go full Cavill and then simply not feature Johnson’s comeback king at all, even if that would lead to an uproar among the audiences taken aback that he’d reneged on his word and signed back on for a franchise he very publicly claimed to be done with.
Of course, conspiracy theories are running rampant that Johnson’s waning star power could be the driving force behind his U-turn, which doubles down on the irony considering he’s coming off the back of two high-profile DCU bombs.