Can you smeeeeellll what the DCEU is cooking? Because it might be The Rock making his first appearance as Black Adam in Suicide Squad 2. On today’s Nerdist News Talks Back we discussed what that could mean for the entire franchise, along with the first images from the Unbreakable sequel Glass, and if Universal has already killed its Dark Universe.

Back for his second straight day of guest hosting duties was SourceFed’s Steve Zaragoza, and he was joined by producer Jason Nguyen, Nerdist News writer Aliza Pearl, and Director of Development Brendon Schulze. They started with the rumors Dwayne Johnson’s first go-round as Black Adam will be in Suicide Squad 2, with the unlikely crime fighters hunting him down. Are we excited by this possibility, or should Black Adam get his own movie first? And does this report mean the DCEU won’t be moving towards more standalone films and will instead favor a shared universe? Would that be a good thing?

We also got our first (amazing) images of Samuel L. Jackson on the set of Glass, the first full sequel to Unbreakable. Are we excited for the movie? Did we like the pseudo, sneaky Unbreakable sequel Split? Are we now looking forward to M. Night Shyamalan movies for positive reasons? What’s our favorite film of his? Which one do we dislike the most?

Finally, after The Mummy flopped and since its producers are moving on, it looks like it could be a wrap on Universal’s Dark Universe already. Is this a relief, or were we looking forward to more monster madness? Are all of the other shared universes enough to satiate our desire for that type of storytelling? And what are the lessons Hollywood should take from this failed franchise launch?

Just like it is every weekday, Nerdist News Talks Back was live today talking about the biggest pop culture topics of the day at 1:00 p.m. PT on our YouTube and Alpha channels. You can always get in on the conversation with us when you tune in live. Because forget what The Rock might say, it always matters what you think.

But you can still talk back to us about today’s show in the comments below, so head down there to let us share your thoughts on everything we discussed.

Images: Universal

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• Watch the latest trailer for Jumanji.
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