As one of Hollywood’s hardest-working hype men, Dwayne Johnson knows to build the buzz around whatever his latest endeavor tends to be, whether it’s a big budget blockbuster or one of his many extracurricular activities. That being said, Black Adam did raise some serious questions over his once-bulletproof reputation.
Spending 15 years developing a project – one that was heavily touted as the launchpad for sequels, spinoffs, and crossovers long before it had even released – only to watch it crash and burn at the box office before the leading man and producer was given his marching orders in the most publicly embarrassing fashion possible by new DC boss James Gunn had to sting.
Previously, anything The Rock touched had turned into a goldmine of IP opportunities, but his “Franchise Viagra” tag is in real danger of going limp beyond repair. Undeterred, though, the 50 year-old has retreated to the safe haven of streaming for Prime Video’s Red One, and he bid farewell to the production by promising that he “made a good one.”
Obviously, the intent behind any movie is to deliver the best possible version of the project, so let’s hope that Johnson’s confidence doesn’t prove to be an ominous warning. After all, the hierarchy of power went the Morbius route of becoming a meme after the actor’s ambitions proved to be almost hilariously misplaced, but at least the fact Red One isn’t even going to see the inside of a theater negates any concerns over potential financial losses – which would then lead to some cooking of the books and a swift rewrite of history. Hypothetically, of course.