During a Twitter chat about his forthcoming Hercules role yesterday, The Rock dropped an interesting crumb for comics fans. He’s apparently working with DC Comics on an upcoming adaptation of one of their “well known” superheroes.
Myself & DC have agreed on a character.. extremely complex, well known (but never played) and a pure BAD ASS MF;) #RockTalk .@ThomasEspin
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) March 25, 2014
That The Rock is working on a DC property has been news since January, and while many fans theorized that he’d be “going green” for a Green Lantern reboot (as John Stewart, who is African American in the comics, but close enough I guess?) he said that he’d be interested in a more villainous role:
Green Lantern (John Stewart) and Black Adam are my fav superheroes, but GL's already been made and stamped. #RockTalk @CFitzyy
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) March 25, 2014
Would it be Black Adam? Doubtful. The Captain Marvel villain isn’t all that well-known (and is a villain). The most popular theory on Twitter right now is that The Rock would be best suited to portray …
https://twitter.com/natasian/status/448709312186425345
Though Lobo, an intergalactic alien bounty hunter from the comics, is not terribly complex. See stuff, shoot stuff, make jokes, rinse, wash, repeat. It’d be a role that The Rock would dominate, but it doesn’t really fit his stated criteria.
As far as a “never-played” character, MTV theorizes that he could be in the running for either Justice League staple Cyborg or Aquaman (who could probably use the boost). But the real issue here is whether DC Comics can even get a film property (Batman notwithstanding) off the ground in the first place.
It’s no secret that DC has tried (and mostly failed) at getting their creations to the big screen (while The Avengers run laps around them). For every Dark Knight, there are many more bombs like Green Lantern and Jonah Hex dragging the company’s film ambitions down. DC has made some headway over Marvel in television, but even that will face fresh, innovative competition when various “street level” Marvel superheroes make their Netflix debut in 2015.
However, The Rock has a reputation as “franchise viagra,” so it is possible that any DC character portrayed by the 41-year-old former wrestler will pack a theater. If only tapping him for a new film role didn’t look like such a last-ditch effort.
Which DC Comics character do you think The Rock should portray?
[Images: Wikimedia Commons, Alex Ross]
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