Guess who!
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has transitioned from professional athlete to Hollywood star better than anyone in recent memory (save Michael Jordan‘s Oscar worthy performance in Space Jam. Yeah, I said it). With a major role in the last few The Fast and The Furious films and now a lead role as the demigod, Hercules, in the upcoming film of the same name, the self-proclaimed “People’s Champ” is ascending in the entertainment world, and on the verge of eclipsing his wrestling career.
In a recent interview with TotalFilm, Johnson confirmed he will in fact be in an upcoming DC Comics film, and gave a good hint at who he will be playing. “I’ll just say this … this character has the power of Superman, he can throw down…just say the word. That’s all I’m going say,” Johnson said with a smirk. The interview made it pretty obvious that The Rock will be playing Captain Marvel in an upcoming DC Comics production as his alter-ego Billy Batson acquires Superman-like strength when he “says the word” “Shazam!”
Rock was in talks to play the Green Lantern which he also discusses in the interview. He said, “…believe me, John Stewart [the black Green Lantern], 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.”
DC has already announced that Shazam! will arrive in 2016, sandwiched between the release of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice in May of the same year and Justice League in 2017, so it seems like a pretty concrete assumption that Rocky will play Shazam. Let’s cross our fingers for the big announcement at San Diego Comic-Con.
You can find Khari Clarke at a bar in Williamsburg and on Twitter (@KINGCLARKEIII).