The Rock Says That He and DC Have Agreed on Which Comics Character He Should Play

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been rumored to play more superheroes or comic book characters at this point than Wonder Woman has confirmed theatrical film appearances, but he says that he’s finally picked one. He also can’t tell us who yet, but he can give us some deliberately vague hints.

In a press event for his upcoming Hercules Johnson was asked about the recent rumors that he’s been asked to play the Green Lantern John Stewart, and by proxy the old rumors that he’d be playing Lobo or Black Adam.

And the actor agreed to answer the question, sorta.

There’s been mutual interest with myself and DC for many years to find the right character. I, like everyone here in the room, love superheroes. So there’s been mutual interest with us for years, and we’ve been having ongoing discussions, myself and DC, for years about the right character, what the right character would be. That’s another thing, too: it had to be right… I won’t tell you who it is, but I’ll tell you the three qualities we’re looking for, okay?… The first quality we were looking for was that he had to be extremely complex and have a lot going on. What that does for me as an actor and the studio is it gives us space that we can explore; his complexities. The other quality was that he had to — the character we were looking for had to be well-known but never brought to life. Then what that does again as an actor, it gives me a little bit of space, and we talked about personality. It just gives me a chance to put an imprint into his personality, with the set of tools that I could bring to the table and put a very unique twist on his personality, but still pay homage to who he is. The third thing — and most important — is he had to be a badass motherfucker, okay, and on a Superman level of power, where could throw down. In those three qualities, I’m happy we’ve found that character. Right now, we’re out to a lot of writers.

Johnson thought there might be more news on the project around San Diego Comic Con time, and also that he hasn’t discussed cameoing in previously announced movies, a hint that he won’t be appearing in Batman vs. Superman.

It seems curious to me that he continually name drops DC Comics instead of Warner Bros. The print publishing arm of DC has no control over their parent Warner Bros.’ movie productions using the characters that originated there. But it could just be his way of simplifying “in talks with Warner Bros. to play a DC Comics character.” As for which character he’s playing, the hints he offered could apply to all of the ones he’s been connected to in rumor. Although, probably, Lobo is the least complex of them. But Black Adam is on a level with Shazam (nee Captain Marvel), who writers love to pair with Superman in their superhero battles, and Johnson has already talked about how he thinks John Stewart is a match for the Man of Steel.

Time will tell whether The Rock will finally get to play the DC superhero he’s always wanted to, and for now we have plenty of time to find the perfect Kevin Sorbo reaction gif to Johnson’s Hercules.

(via Collider.)

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