Credit: ABCActor and entertainer Dwayne Johnson has been on the bad side of some losses recently.
Dwayne The Rock Johnson, who got his start in the WWE, quickly moved up the ranks to become one of the most popular figures in all of Hollywood. The former WWE champion paved the way for stars who would come later, such as John Cena and Dave Bautista, after he made his Hollywood debut in The Mummy Returns (2001) as the Scorpion King alongside Brendan Fraser.
Since that point, Johnson has gone on to work with all the major Hollywood studios, raking in a fortune along the way. His estimated net worth currently sits at over $800 million, and even though he has fallen down the list over the last couple of years, he still remains a prominent figure. Still, even Johnson’s most loyal fans would note that the entertainer has been on the wrong end of some bad losses in the last several months.
Johnson’s last two most prominent blockbusters, Disney’s Jungle Cruise (2021) and DC Universe’s Black Adam (2022), were both busts at the box office. Though Johnson was originally expected to be an Executive at DC as it moved forward, he has essentially been axed from the future, at least for the time being. In addition, his newest football league– the XFL– lost more than $60 million in its first season.
Though some points of the future have not been made clear for Johnson, we do know two prominent franchises that he’ll be rejoining. First, Dwayne Johnson announced that he’d be reprising his role as Maui in a live-action version of the Disney film Moana (2016). While some fans expressed backlash over another live-action film, Disney is moving forward with its plans and has made Johnson an Executive Producer on the project, as well. Filming is reportedly set to begin in October.
Johnson also made a surprise cameo in the last Fast & Furious franchise installment, Fast X (2023), and later revealed that he had squashed his disagreement with Vin Diesel. Subsequently, it was announced that The Rock would be reprising his role as Hobbs in yet another spinoff. This time, however, it’s being reported that the franchise will stay away from the idea it had originally, which was dubbed a “$760 million mistake” by a recent report.
In a report, Screenrant indicated that The Rock’s newest Fast & Furious spinoff will be different from Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw (2016). Though the movie made $760 million at the box office, the report makes the point that it did more harm to the Fast & Furious franchise than good simply because it did not connect or build to anything else in the franchise. This time, however, that will not be the case.
“Unlike Hobbs and Shaw, this latest Fast & Furious spinoff is decidedly important to the rest of the franchise. While Hobbs and Shaw acted more as its own independent film based in the Fast & Furious world, the new movie is a bridge between the main Fast & Furious films. In a sense, the new film is pivotal for the rest of the series, which is exactly what the Rock needs. Hopefully, by doing this, the Rock’s new spinoff will perform better than Hobbs and Shaw and be seen as vital as a regular Fast & Furious film.”
The Fast & Furious franchise has made more than $7.3 billion and is listed as the seventh-highest-grossing franchise of all time. Outside of Fast & Furious, there have been speculations that Johnson will rejoin his good friend Kevin Hart for one more Jumanji film, but this has not been confirmed.
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