Dwayne Johnson’s Career Changed Forever, New Franchise Revealed

Dwayne Johnson’s career was changed forever following a flop superhero movie, a charitable controversy, and being named in a $3 billion kidnapping lawsuit. Now, after his surprise return to the Fast & Furious series earlier this year, a new franchise has been revealed that will likely see The Rock return to his height.

Beginning in the world of professional wrestling, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson rose to fame in the Attitude Era of WWF (now WWE) and eventually made his feature film debut in The Mummy Returns (2001) as the Scorpion King alongside Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. Johnson would return to the world of Ancient Egypt in the spinoff, The Scorpion King (2002) a year later, making him the highest-paid debut actor for a film.

Following his early success, Johnson eventually became a Hollywood heavyweight and has since starred in a number of high-profile movies like the Jumanji reboot, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and its sequel, Jumanji: The Next Level (2019), as well as the Disney Jungle Cruise (2021) film with Emily Blunt, and most recently as Black Adam in the DC Extended Universe’s movie of the same name.

He made his first appearance as Luke Hobbs in Fast Five (2011) and endured a long career in the world of the Fast & Furious franchise. Johnson had a strained relationship with fellow Fast & Furious star Vin Diesel, eventually leaving the series before making a surprise return in this year’s Fast X (2023).

Johnson’s reprise as Luke Hobbs came after the actor faced a huge blow to his career with the flop of Black Adam (2023). After having been slated as the savior of the DCEU, Black Adam failed to make a splash at the global box office and was written out of the DC Studios franchise after James Gunn and Peter Safran took over as co-CEOs and rebooted everything.

In addition to the failure of Black Adam at the box office, Johnson came under fire for his apparent leak of financial information claiming the movie was a success. Another monetary incident happened just last month when Johnson, along with TV icon Oprah Winfrey, launched The Entertainment Industry Foundation fund to aid Maui after wildfires ravaged the island. Both stars deposited $10 million each and asked others to donate. The request received backlash, which Johnson later responded to.

So, with Johnson losing his highest-paid entertainer status as well as the flopped Black Adam and the Maui backlash, 2023 is a rather different landscape for Dwayne Johnson. Not to mention him being named in a $3 billion kidnapping lawsuit by former wrestler Trenesha Biggers, AKA Rhaka Khan.

However, a new franchise has revealed itself and may pose to be a major deal for the superstar.

Related: Fans Can’t Believe New ‘Moana’ Look With Zendaya and Dwayne Johnson

Back in 2021, Dwayne Johson starred as John Hartley in Red Notice (2021), alongside Ryan Reynolds as Nolan Booth and Gal Gadot as Sarah Black/The Bishop. Red Notice was a huge hit for Netflix and became the streaming service’s most-watched movie on release day. It eventually usurped Bird Box (2018) as the most-watched film on Netflix within 28 days of release.

It was so popular, in fact, that in January this year, it was announced that there would be two sequels that would be filmed back-to-back. Months later, in October, it was shared that the screenplay for the second movie was finished and that work had begun on the next. Dwayne Johnson’s own production outlet, Seven Bucks Productions, is part of the producing team.

Red Notice may be what Johnson needs to gain sure footing once again in Hollywood, at least when it comes to franchises. As Screenrant points out:

Even if it doesn’t have revolutionary character development or a hard-hitting narrative, a Red Notice franchise could be filled with exciting action, complete with the constant dynamic of the main characters not trusting each other. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson thrives in this kind of environment.

Related: “The Rock Has Officially Lost It,” Disney’s Dwayne Johnson Goes Viral for NSFW Post

Next up for the actor will be this year’s Red One (2023) with Marvel star Chris Evans. Johnson also confirmed recently that his next project will be filming the upcoming Disney live-action remake of Moana (2016), where he returns to play the demigod Maui.

Would you like to see the Red Notice franchise take off?

This post is originally appeared on Inside the Magic.