Upcoming Dwayne Johnson Movies You Won't Want To Miss
Dwayne Johnson has been a recognizable name for a long time now. Before he made the leap to acting, Johnson was a professional wrestler known by the name "The Rock." Taking cues from the performative nature of WWE and WrestleMania, Johnson started acting around 2001, with his appearance as the Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns. It seems like he caught the acting bug after that, as he left wrestling in 2004 to fully pursue his acting career, only returning to his previous profession sporadically until he completely retired in 2019.
With an already famous face and name, Johnson quickly earned lead roles in movies like The Game Plan, Race to Witch Mountain, and Tooth Fairy, slowly transitioning to be known by the name Dwayne Johnson, rather than The Rock. He also entered the Fast & Furious franchise in Fast Five, playing a character named Hobbs. He appeared in three more movies in the series, before getting a spin-off with Jason Statham in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.
From there, Johnson has continued to rise in Hollywood, picking up franchises left and right, and really showing his expansive range of acting talent. He has many exciting films on the horizon — some sequels and franchise extensions, others completely new. Check out what's next for Johnson.
Dwayne Johnson's next movie is Jungle Cruise
Though already delayed twice and now looking at a July 30, 2021 release date, via Collider, it seems that Jungle Cruise is officially Johnson's next film.
Based on the attraction of the same name at Walt Disney World and Disneyland, Jungle Cruise stars Johnson and Emily Blunt taking a group of people on a small riverboat through a dangerous jungle, filled with wild creatures and other surprises. The rest of the cast is filled out by great actors like Edgar Ramírez, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti, and more. If the movie had been released on its former release date, July 24, 2020, it would've been just after the 65-year anniversary of the attraction's opening at Disneyland on July 17, 1955, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Like many of Johnson's other films, this will likely be an action-comedy of epic proportions. Johnson plays a character named Frank, the riverboat captain who takes Blunt's Lily Houghton, a scientist, through the Amazon in search of the Tree of Life. The movie is set in the early 20th century, beginning in London with Blunt's character before venturing to South America, allowing for very cool and elaborate sets and design.
Dwayne Johnson will star in Red Notice
Next up for Johnson is Red Notice, another action-comedy that just finished filming. Co-starring Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds, the movie is set up to premiere on Netflix sometime in the future. In the film, Johnson plays a charming, determined FBI profiler working with Interpol to chase down a skilled art thief, played by Gadot, and a con man, played by Reynolds. Netflix picked up the rights for Red Notice back in July 2019, after it had initially been set up to be released by Universal.
However, Red Notice was impacted by COVID-19 in the same way many other productions were, according to Deadline. Right after starting filming in March, they had to stop working for a few months, and were finally able to finish in November. Johnson commemorated the end of production with a photo of the cast on his Instagram.
As of right now, there is no further information about the project, and Netflix has not announced a release date.
Dwayne Johnson returns in The King, directed by Robert Zemeckis
The King, to be directed by Robert Zemeckis, is centered around King Kamehameha, also known as Kamehameha the Great, the first ruler of the Kingdom of Hawai'i, who united all the islands together as one.
Johnson is of Polynesian heritage, specifically Samoan. Native Hawaiians, known as Kanaka Maoli, were Polynesians who sailed to Hawai'i from the Marquesas Islands and Tahiti, in two waves, and settled on the Hawaiian islands many centuries ago, according to Encyclopedia Brittanica. King Kamehameha's role as the unifier was supposedly prophesied, with a legend stating that "a light in the sky with feathers like a bird would signal the birth of a great chief" (via Go Hawaii and the Hawaii Tourism Authority). According to historians, in fact, King Kamehameha was likely born in the year 1758, when Halley's comet was visible in the sky over Hawaii.
Previously, when the movie was first announced in 2018, Johnson stated on his Instagram that his "dream was to bring this legacy to life." Since the initial announcement, there have been no further details or updates, but The King still seems to be in development.
Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam is finally happening
Even before Shazam! proved itself as a film, and as a successful superhero franchise, New Line and DC began developing a spin-off film called Black Adam, to star Dwayne Johnson as the lead character. Initially, the plan was to have Black Adam appear in Shazam! before anything else, but the creatives saw the potential in splitting Shazam! and Black Adam up into two films. Thankfully, when Shazam! premiered in April of 2019, it did so to great reviews and a wonderful box office return, signaling a green light for Black Adam's future.
In the comics, Black Adam is actually the arch-nemesis of Shazam, with very similar powers and origin stories. Though Black Adam is often perceived as a villain, he's far more complicated than that, and the film will almost certainly dive deeper into the character's roots, to portray him as an antihero.
At the end of 2019, Black Adam was given a December 22, 2021 release date, but since then, it has been removed from the calendar (via Deadline), for the time being. Don't be discouraged though, as Black Adam is still well on its way to being made: Production on the movie is still expected to start early 2021, and there have been many additions to the cast, including Noah Centineo, Aldis Hodge, and Sarah Shahi.