Why hasn’t Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson—who’s made a name for himself as an intense action star able to run down bad guys and deliver great quips—ever gotten to play around in the DC Cinematic Universe? Simply because they haven’t found the absolute best role for him, it turns out.
But that’s about to change. On the press tour for his current film Hercules, the man formerly known as The Rock not only confirmed that he’s playing a DC Comics character, but he also dropped a lot of obvious hints that give us a pretty good idea who that is.
Kudos to the reporter who asked, because the timing is spot-on: Johnson claimed that DC will be announcing the actual character in the near future. In the meantime, here’s what he teased us with:
“DC and I have been talking for a couple of years now about trying to find whatever the right character is. And it’s tricky, too, because there’s baggage—and it’s good baggage—that I have. I am a certain way—and my wiring is my wiring, my DNA is my DNA—and when I step on-set and on-screen, I’m aware of what I’m able to bring to a character. And so is DC too, so it’s not the easiest thing, do you know what I’m saying?”
If you watch the actual video of the interview, Johnson speaks with such conviction that it doesn’t sound like the usual deflection other actors do when discussing sensitive casting information.
You see him warming to the conversation and unable to resist throwing out some concrete clues:
“There’s a character out there that we’re going to announce very soon, that I’m going to play, and… I’ll just say this: He has the power of Superman. And it’s not Green Lantern, by the way. Believe me—John Stewart—he was a character I wanted to play, but there was already a version of Green Lantern, and so we’ve gone in a different direction. But this character has the power of Superman; he can throw down… Just say the word. That’s all I’m going to say.”
Fan consensus points to Shazam, who’s Superman-level power is activated by saying the word “shazam.”
Shazam—or, as he was originally called, Captain Marvel—could draw upon the power of mythological figures including (ironically) Hercules to transform himself into a superhero. There’s been a rumored Shazam movie on DC’s 2016 roster for years despite no one being involved. Could it all be as easy as that?
