The Rock Hints His Possible Lobo/Green Lantern Role Is Locked Down
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Myself & DC have agreed on a character.. extremely complex, well known (but never played) and a pure BAD ASS MF;) #RockTalk .@ThomasEspin
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) March 25, 2014
When it comes to comic book movies, Hollywood filmmakers get extremely strict about keeping a tight lid on each project’s secrecy, as if that particular tactic ever ends up making the final product more exciting. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been known to use his social media presence to circumvent studios, releasing behind-the-scenes imagery from the upcoming Hercules flick for example, and he’s long been teasing a tentative role within the DC Universe. Johnson’s recent CinemaCon interview and the above tweet seem to confirm that role is a sure thing now, though we’re still not sure of who he’ll be playing. It should come as no surprise that everyone here at GFR is getting drunk and fighting, hoping that he’s talking about playing Lobo, the interstellar bounty hunter. Lobo! Lobo! Lobo!
The character details in the tweet are the same as the trio he laid out for CinemaCon journalists last night in Las Vegas. Johnson stated there are three basic principles involved with getting him to star as a superhero. Considering how little thought beyond financial gain is thrown at the majority of comic book movies, he’s certainly coming at this from the right angle.
First, he says the character has to be “extremely complex,” which would give the actor and studio more to explore. An argument could be made that just about any fictional character in history can be described that way, so it’s his second point that is the most interesting, as he says he won’t play a character that has been brought to the big screen before.
What that does, again as an actor, is that it gives me a little bit of space…it gives me a chance to put an imprint into his personality with the set of tools that I can bring to the table and put a very unique twist on his personality — but still pay homage to who he is.
And his third quasi-demand is the most understandable.
He had to be a badass motherfucker. And on Superman level of power where he can throw down. In those three qualities, I’m happy we found that character and right now we’re out to a lot of writers.
Given all his uses of masculine pronouns, I guess we can assume he won’t be playing Dagger.
Johnson is the one that egged on all these Lobo rumors in the first place back in 2012, though he’s been equally supportive of theories that he’ll take on the role of Green Lantern John Stewart. We’ve already seen Stewart on the small screen in different incarnations of Justice League, which Lobo also appeared on, as well as Superman: The Animated Series. So this would technically disqualify both of them, but we’re sure Johnson just meant that these characters weren’t the stars of their own movies in the past.
Of course, this equally keeps the rumor mill open for Johnson playing Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Cyborg, or any number of hulking badasses in the DC Universe. As with most things in life, we’ll just have to wait and see.
