It’s not been a great couple of weeks for Dwayne Johnson. The shifting terrain at Warner Bros. Discovery with the hiring of James Gunn and Peter Safran to lead DC Studios has seen Johnson’s pet Black Adam franchise canceled before it ever really got going. That was followed by a brutal story that exposed Johnson’s attempts to bully his way into control at the studio in order to “change the hierarchy of power” as he’s been boasting about for months.
So how does Johnson feel about all of this? He’s been pretty quiet about it until now. In a recent video tweet, Johnson hints at his experiences with DC, and says anything he tried to do there was because he “has the guts to fail”, and not an over-inflated ego like it appears to the outside.
”A thought I wanted to share with you guys. There’s a good friend of mine named Inky Johnson, you guys should follow him. He’s always got great perspective, grounding perspective. He keeps it raw. He keeps it real. He said something that was really profound that I feel ties into this whole thing: … he talked about having the guts to fail. And the reason why I bring that back around to you guys is having the guts to fail compared to having the desire to be famous, having the desire to succeed.”
“But I have found in life, that the desire to become famous, the desire to succeed will never be as powerful as having the guts to fail. And I love that, because I look back at my own life, and around every corner, and still today– Look, I’m a Tyrannosaurus Rex, I’m 58,000 years old, but I still have that. And that’s my lead foot. I’m just having the guts to fail, around every corner. And that leads my decisions. That allows me to take big swings. Get my ass kicked on some of them. Fail at some of them. But then, also succeed at some of them. So, I will always take guts over desire. Have a great week and let’s get after it. This is our year. 2023. Guts over desire.”
Of course, Johnson has to spin this situation as best he can. It doesn’t look good just how badly Black Adam performed despite all of the weight Johnson threw behind it. It doesn’t look good that Johnson tried to act as if he were so valuable as to be untouchable, only to have all of his plans tossed aside. What does the future hold for Johnson and DC? Probably not much. I’ve said before that Johnson will probably want to create something original that he can be the centerpiece of, rather than joining established cinematic universes. His confidence remains sky high. It’s one of the things we all love about Johnson. He’s unflappable. He’ll find a way to succeed one way or another.
#GutsToFail
Shout to my brotha @inkyjohnson ?? pic.twitter.com/sQ7l4MmJDl— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) January 5, 2023
