Even if it's 100% accurate, it still seems likely that it came from the Rock/his part of the production team. His team has clear motivations to do so given uncertainty at WB and deadline stealth-removed a line saying "WB is considering a Hawkman spinoff produced by the Rock's production company" indicating that's what WB actually pushed back against. Rock clearly planned to push some social media buzz around the film's release.

The most interesting concrete data that Deadline posted also concerned the Rock's share of revenue and it goes out of its way to praise the Rock's social media clout. Neither of those prove anything but there's nudges in that direction.