Dwayne Johnson has roughly a dozen upcoming movies in various stages of development, and nearly all of them have one bad trait in common.
Dwayne Johnson has become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, but nearly all his upcoming movies have a bad trait in common. Following his turn away from wrestling, The Rock’s status in the movie industry continued to increase in the 2010s thanks to the box office boost he could provide. The overall success that Johnson experienced has allowed him to maintain his position as one of Hollywood’s busiest actors, one who typically stars in at least one of the biggest movies of each year. This has made his talents quite sought after in the entertainment world, resulting in Johnson being attached to nearly a dozen upcoming movies.
There is an ever-growing list of upcoming Dwayne Johnson movies, but franchises have always been a key part of The Rock’s strategy to be a movie star. His appearance as The Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns sparked a standalone spinoff. Still, Johnson made sure that he was still appearing in a variety of movies that did not have franchise potential, whether that came with him in the lead role or a supporting part. Considering some of Dwayne Johnson’s box office flops recently, a renewed focus on non-franchises could be great for him. The only issue is his next movies do not align with that.
Dwayne Johnson Has At Least 10 Sequels Or Remakes In Development
The harsh reality is that almost every movie Dwayne Johnson is currently developing is either a sequel or remake. This number has increased substantially through the course of 2023 alone. This comes as a result of Dwayne Johnson’s upcoming movies including a new Fast & Furious spinoff and Fast & Furious 11 following his cameo as Hobbs in Fast X‘s post-credits scene. It was also confirmed this year that Disney is making a live-action Moana remake with The Rock reprising his role as Maui. These three movies join a long list of sequels or remakes that Dwayne Johnson is currently attached to.
The status of some of these Dwayne Johnson sequels, spinoffs, reboots, and remakes is not as clear as the more recent announcements. The Doc Savage movie brought Johnson aboard in 2016, but he noted in a 2018 interview that there were rights issues holding up the movie. The character has since had a TV show move into development, putting the movie’s future in further question. There has also been little development on Big Trouble In Little China over the years, and San Andreas 2 has not been a priority for Johnson given the other franchises he’s involved in.
Why Dwayne Johnson’s Franchise Obsession Is Bad For His Career
Franchises may have played a crucial role in helping turn Dwayne Johnson into a major box office star, but the level of his obsession in recent years has only continued. In addition to almost exclusively playing parts in movies that are developed with franchise potential in mind, the sequels on his slate limit the amount of other projects he’s capable of doing. There are more interesting roles that can test his abilities as an actor instead of continuously returning to familiar roles where he plays loose variations of himself. Johnson needs to turn down another franchise role and risk pairing himself with a major director for a more dramatic role.
The reasoning for Dwayne Johnson’s franchise obsession is also not quite as strong as once seemed. His movies have not performed as well at the box office in the last few years. Without the massive box office hauls that he was known for, the financial incentive of doing even more franchises, sequels, and reboots will decrease. This can even be seen with Johnson beginning to pivot to having his franchises be tied to streaming services, where the pressures of the box office are eliminated and success is determined by metrics provided by the individual streamers.
Dwayne Johnson’s Three Upcoming Original Movies Are His Most Exciting
The good news for Dwayne Johnson is his three upcoming original movies are his most exciting projects on paper. His next movie is Red One, an original Christmas action movie co-starring Chris Evans. He also has The King in development, which is meant to be a historical drama where Johnson plays the Hawaiian king Kamehameha. There is certainly plenty of hype and built-in intrigue for the various sequels he has coming, but both of these projects give audiences reasons to be optimistic about what they will be. It was also confirmed he’ll make a dramatic turn in A24’s The Smashing Machine.
With Red One, the idea of Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans starring alongside the other in an original Christmas movie is a fun premise. Throw in the fact that J.K. Simmons is playing a ripped Santa Claus, and it has the makings to be a movie worth repeat viewings every holiday season. As for The King, the movie pairs The Rock with director Robert Zemeckis with a script from Braveheart‘s Randall Wallace. Meanwhile, The Smashing Machine teams him with director Benny Safdie for a potentially Oscar-caliber project. These are exactly the types of non-sequels that Dwayne Johnson needs to make more of, which are passion projects for the Samoan actor/wrestler.
