While performing as part of the WWE certainly requires a certain amount of acting talent, many wrestlers have failed to transition into becoming movie actors. Outside of Roddy Piper’s iconic performance in the John Carpenter classic They live, the history of wrestlers turned actors is rather bleak. However, that all changed thanks to Dwayne Johnson. Johnson was one of the most popular wrestling stars of his era, but he made his film debut in 2001’s The mummy returns. While not a major role, it led Johnson to develop his spin-off franchise The Scorpion Kingwhich earned him his first starring role.
Johnson continued to act and became one of the most successful movie stars of the 21st century. In an era where franchises and predetermined characters tended to attract audiences rather than specific performers, he seemed to be one of the rare actors to create excitement based on his name alone. While Johnson certainly did a significant number of original projects, he also took part in major franchises such as The Fast and the Furious saga, the DCEU, the reboot Jumanji series, and even the highly anticipated sequels Race to Witch Mountain, be cool, And Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. However, his most recent efforts suggest that Johnson may be losing the foothold he had in the film industry, and may be in danger of falling further into irrelevance.
His best work is behind him
Unlike action stars of a previous generation such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves, Sylvester Stallone or Bruce Willis, the overall quality of Johnson’s filmography is not very strong. In fact, it seems that the most interesting work of his career is now behind him. Johnson once showed a willingness to work with author-filmmakers and give non-traditional performances. Richard Kelly’s epic dystopian satire Southland stories allowed him to play a satirical version of an action movie star who unexpectedly becomes a political mouthpiece; while the film was initially rejected, the prophetic nature of it Southland stories has earned it a strong cult following. It would be rare to see Johnson pull off this sort of largely satirical, experimental feat in anything now.
Likewise, Johnson surprisingly did some of the best work of his career with Michael Bay in the 2013 grossly underrated true crime comedy. Pain & Gain. The film is a good example of how Bay’s excess can work, as it satirizes America’s obsession with status, the culture around body image and training, and various forms of toxic masculinity. Johnson gives one of the funniest performances he’s ever given as a timid, non-aggressive bodybuilder forced to unleash his dark side. It’s an unusually sensitive performance that proved he could challenge preconceptions about his star power, but unfortunately in recent years he’s reverted to his typically flawless action characters.
Not all of Johnson’s efforts to expand its range have worked; Be cool was a very disappointing sequel to Get Shortieand few audiences managed to watch his roles in the sports films Gridiron gang And The game plan. However, this doesn’t mean he should rule out trying these kinds of movies in the future.
His movies are getting worse and worse
The fundamental problem with Johnson right now is that his most recent movies just haven’t been good. Baywatch, Hercules, And rampage were all intended to reboot popular franchises so that he could also make sequels, but all failed to connect with audiences in any significant way. The films each suffered from ill-conceived story ideas: Baywatch was just too self-conscious for his own good, Hercules felt like a tired attempt to tell a “dark and gritty” origin story, and rampage was simply unable to justify its own inherent ridiculousness. Likewise, Jungle Cruise may have attracted a lot of attention on Disney+, but it was little more than a blatant reinvention of a formula Disney had already perfected with the pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Red notice may have garnered a lot of attention on Netflix, but Johnson’s highly anticipated collaboration with Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot managed to pack every cliché an action comedy was capable of; aside from the film’s underwhelming action, Johnson’s charisma was surpassed by Reynolds, who was far more adept at adding comedic moments. While Johnson had initially brought a lot of energy and a fresh look The Fast and the Furious franchise when he co-starred Fast Fivehas he now left the core series to develop the spin-off Fast and Furious presents: Hobbs and Shaw. Hobbs and Shaw just feels like another buddy action comedy, and lacks the unique team-up quality present in the best movies in The Fast and the Furious story.
The controversy behind the scenes
Sadly, it seems that offscreen, Johnson’s ego rivals that of his most famous characters. Since the release of The fate of the furiousJohnson has received a lot of publicity feud with Vin Diesel. The actors’ unwillingness to cooperate only hurt the franchise, which was at its best Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, And Furious 7 when the two shared the screen together.
Johnson had been attached to playing the iconic DC character Black Adam since 2014, and was initially expected to take on Zachary Levi’s Billy Batson in the Shazam! series. However, Johnson made deliberate efforts to move away from the lighter tone of the Shazam! series so he could develop a darker take on it Black Adam; Johnson essentially sabotaged the DCEU’s future by banning Levi from having a cameo Black Adam and refuse to appear in either Shazam! movie. This made no sense to longtime DC fans since the characters have always appeared together in the comics. Johnson was not even able to underperform Black Adam honorably, as he went on discuss with critics and box-office experts on the film’s relative success.