Dwayne Johnson is seen on the set of Red One staring down a giant Krampus in an early look at the Christmas action flick.
Dwayne Johnson has tried again and again to kickstart or take over a franchise, from The Mummy, Journey to the Center of the Earth, G.I. Joe, Fast & Furious, and Black Adam, but he just hasn’t been able to get it done. Now he is seemingly trying one more time with a new Christmas film, Red One, which could kickstart another franchise for the actor if done well. While we don’t know much about the movie yet, Dwayne Johnson shared a new first look of the giant actor being dwarfed by a huge Krampus.
As you can see from the image, the massive star (figuratively and literally) seems to be standing head-to-chest with a giant monster. While you can’t really see who or what that monster is, Dwayne Johnson was nice enough to let us know in the caption that the beast is, indeed, Krampus. The actor then goes on to praise the action sets of the film and teases more to come before signing off as the commander of the E.L.F.
Red One is being heralded as the next big holiday action movie, following in the footsteps of last year’s Violent Night, and being called a mix of Miracle on 34th Street meets Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw. While there is not a lot to be gleaned from the numerous posts on Dwayne Johnson’s Instagram feed, we can make some early predictions on the plot. What we do know is that it caused a massive bidding war to take place before the rights to the film were picked up by Amazon, so we can expect it to stream by Christmas this year.
Dwayne Johnson from Hobbs & Shaw
So what do we think it is about? Well, judging from the image of the stacked protagonist squaring off with the beast in the photo, his sign-off as commander of the E.L.F, and previous photos of J.K. Simmons as a shredded Santa Claus, we can assume this film is about a secret organization that works for the big red guy to protect Christmas. With that said, Krampus seems to be set up to be a particularly nasty antagonist and one that could destroy Christmas as we know it.
Along with Dwayne Johnson and J.K. Simmons, the film also stars the former Captain America himself, Chris Evans. While his role is yet to be revealed, and it is all being kept under wraps like the rest of the information on the film, it has been said that he will be working alongside the commander. However, there is a solid chance that the actor is still looking to shrug off his good ol’ boy image from Captain America to play another villain, the way he did in The Grey Man.
In any case, Dwayne Johnson has another possible franchise on his hands, as there is a deep lore surrounding Christmas (and don’t forget the other holidays) for them to build on. The only setback for him is that he will have to go head-to-head with David Harbour when Violent Night 2 hits screens. Wait, does that mean we could have competing holiday action flicks year in and year out? We’re here for it.
