Dwayne Johnson’s recent endeavors suggest that he may be losing the foothold he once had on the film industry.
While performing as part of the WWE certainly requires a degree of acting talent, many wrestlers have been unsuccessful in transitioning to becoming film 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 time, but he made his cinematic debut in 2001’s The Mummy Returns. While it wasn’t a major role, it led Johnson to develop his spinoff franchise The Scorpion King, which gave him his first leading role.
Johnson continued acting to become one of the most successful movie stars of the 21st Century. In an era where franchises and pre-established characters tended to attract audiences instead of specific performers, he seemed to be one of the rare actors who generated excitement based on his name alone. While Johnson certainly did a significant amount of original projects, he also took part in major franchises such as The Fast and the Furious saga, the DCEU, the rebooted Jumanji series, and even the long-awaited sequels Race to Witch Mountain, Be Cool, and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. However, his most recent endeavors suggest that Johnson may be losing the foothold he had on the film industry, and may be in danger of further sliding into irrelevance.
His Best Work Is Behind Him
Unlike action stars of a previous generation like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves, Sylvester Stallone, or Bruce Willis, the overall quality of Johnson’s filmography is not very strong. In fact, he seems like the most interesting work of his career is now behind him. Johnson once showed a willingness to work with auteur filmmakers and give non-traditional performances. Richard Kelly’s epic dystopian satire Southland Tales allowed him to play a satirical version of an action movie star who unexpectedly becomes a political mouthpiece; while the film was initially dismissed, the prophetic nature of Southland Tales has earned it a strong cult following. It would be rare to see Johnson delivering this type of broadly satiric, experimental performance in anything now.
Similarly, Johnson surprisingly did some of the best work of his career with Michael Bay in the severely underrated 2013 true crime comedy Pain & Gain. The film is a great example of how Bay’s excess can work, as he satirizes America’s obsession with status, the culture surrounding body image and working out, and various forms of toxic masculinity. Johnson gives one of the funniest performances he’s ever given as a timid, non-aggressive bodybuilder who is forced to unleash his darker side. It’s an unusually sensitive performance that proved that he could challenge preconceptions about his star power, but sadly he’s reverted to his typically flawless action characters in recent years.
Not all of Johnson’s efforts at expanding his range have worked; Be Cool was a highly disappointing sequel to Get Shorty, and few audiences managed to check out his roles in the sports films Gridiron Gang and The Game Plan. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean he should rule out even trying these sorts of films in the future.
His Films Are Getting Worse
The fundamental issue with Johnson right now is that his most recent films have simply not been good. Baywatch, Hercules, and Rampage were all intended to reboot popular franchises that he could create sequels too, but they each failed to connect with audiences in a significant way. The films each suffered from poorly conceived story ideas: Baywatch was simply too self-aware for its own good, Hercules felt like a tired attempt to tell a “dark and gritty” origin story, and Rampage simply wasn’t able to justify its own inherent ridiculousness. Similarly, Jungle Cruise may have generated a lot of attention on Disney+, but it was little more than a shameless reimagining of a formula that Disney had already perfected with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Red Notice may have generated a lot of attention on Netflix, but Johnson’s highly anticipated team-up with Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot managed to pack in every cliche that an action comedy was capable of; beyond the film’s disappointing 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 perspective to The Fast and the Furious franchise when he co-starred in Fast Five, he’s now exited the core series to develop the spinoff Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw. Hobbs and Shaw simply feels like another buddy action comedy, and lacks the unique team up quality that are present in the best films in The Fast and the Furious saga.
The Behind-the-Scenes Controversy
Unfortunately, it seems like Johnson’s ego off-screen rivals that of his most famous characters. Ever since the release of The Fate of the Furious, Johnson has been in a highly publicized feud with Vin Diesel. The actors’ unwillingness to cooperate has only harmed the franchise, which was at its best in Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, and Furious 7 when the two were sharing the screen together.
Johnson had been attached to play the iconic DC character Black Adam since 2014, and it was initially expected that he would be facing off with Zachary Levi’s Billy Batson in the Shazam! series. However, Johnson made deliberate attempts to distance himself from the lighter tone of the Shazam! series so that he could develop a darker take on Black Adam; Johnson essentially sabotaged the future of the DCEU by forbidding Levi from having a cameo in Black Adam and refusing to appear in either Shazam! film. This made no sense to longtime DC fans, as the characters have always appeared together in the comics. Johnson wasn’t even able to take the underperformance of Black Adam honorably, as he proceeded to argue with critics and box office pundits over the film’s relative success.
