Dwayne Johnson Talks Playing HERCULES And Potential Superhero Roles

The Rock offers some new details for Brett Ratner's Hercules, saying that it's "darker in tone" and that he hopes it'll respect the mythology. He also sounds certain that he'll land a superhero role someday after losing out on Shazam and Lobo.

By PaulRom - Mar 24, 2013 02:03 PM EST

Filed Under: Action

Speaking with Cinema Blend while promoting G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson talks about his upcoming performance as Hercules in the Brett Ratner-directed adaptation of the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars. He says the fact that Die Hard 2 director Renny Harlin is helming his own 3D Hercules movie, which is targeting a March 2014 release, doesn't bother him at all. He also says that the film is "darker in tone", and that he wishes to honor and respect the Hercules mythology in the adaptation. Finally, he gives some more detail into what to expect from the costume.

"I was born to play Hercules. I have loved and honored the mythology over the years – since I was a kid. When I first broke into Hollywood, Hercules was one of the movies that I, not chased, because I didn’t have the power to chase anything, but always had in the back of my mind. Everything happens for a reason, and it’s come back around full circle. Hold on, check this out…[fumbles around in his pocket for his phone, take it out and searches through it] So this was me last week with the director and all of the producers, slipping into character and becoming Hercules [shows picture of him in character, which features him with long hair hanging over his face, looking somber, and wearing a tattered shirt]. That will give you the idea of the type of movie we want to make and the definitive version of Hercules that we want. It’s going to be darker in tone, based on the awesome graphic novel. It’s full-on. We talked about, for example, the mythology of G.I. Joe, but here’s a mythology we have to honor and respect, and in doing so we’re bringing in big writers, and we based it off a much darker graphic novel. There’s tragedy and there’s pain, and in respecting the mythology of Hercules you find that he lives in pain and he lives in tragedy, and lives not to accept his fate or faith, until he finally does and it becomes a powerful moment. So yeah, we’re ready."

Johnson has also been associated with some unproduced comic book movies, namely DC Comics adaptations Lobo and Shazam. The Rock was in talks to play the title role in the former, while he was attached to the Black Adam role in the latter a few years ago. Here, he talks about why both projects were shelved, and says that he will end up playing a superhero someday. "It [Lobo] kind of came and went. It came – I thought it was interesting – and then it kind of went away? Shazam was more interesting. And really interesting to me. I would have loved that, especially the idea of playing Black Adam. Again, though, studios start to look at other properties and other superhero properties, what makes sense and what doesn’t, but I’ll be a superhero down the line." If any, which comic book character would you like to see Johnson play?

You can next see Dwayne Johnson in action in G.I. Joe: Retaliation on March 28th. Hercules is set to hit theaters July 25th, 2014.

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50 Comments

1 2

blvdnoise - 3/24/2013, 2:20 PM

Hmmmmmmmmmmm..

marvel72 - 3/24/2013, 2:21 PM

he'd be good as black adam & maybe luke cage at a push.

jazzman - 3/24/2013, 2:31 PM

@marvel72

becareful about the Luke Cage comment cause some crazy fanboys will say The Rock aint black even tho he is also black plus he is playing a black character Roadblock in GI Joe lol.

WorstUserNameEver - 3/24/2013, 2:34 PM

Would make a great Gladiator (Kallark) if they ever wanted to do the Annihilators.

toco89 - 3/24/2013, 2:41 PM

Gladiator is only as strong as he believes he is. smh

CeltiC527 - 3/24/2013, 2:42 PM

catman - 3/24/2013, 2:48 PM

You f-king morons...Black Adam is not a black guy!!

Lozzy - 3/24/2013, 2:49 PM

he should of just ditched Hercules and then Drax could of been his.

NubaX - 3/24/2013, 2:50 PM

@ Hey...I was the same way

@Catman.... Calm Down and Get a Life.

Tevii - 3/24/2013, 2:56 PM

@nubax - curious why you would tell him to get a life. Sure he should relax a little, but he's entitled to his opinion, which just happens to be true

Danbojohnj - 3/24/2013, 2:57 PM

Rogue Trooper

IronBaby - 3/24/2013, 2:58 PM

I want to see him as Luke cage

Necroxide - 3/24/2013, 3:02 PM

I want him as Craven the hunter or venom ! ahah

friking NAMOR wow nice idea !

redskull666 - 3/24/2013, 3:03 PM

Rock 4 Black Adam

deamon - 3/24/2013, 3:09 PM

I want him as Apocalypse.

billytwohats - 3/24/2013, 3:10 PM

I think he'd make a great Booster Gold.

Nathan - 3/24/2013, 3:10 PM

The dude has the physique of a superhero and the presence of one too. Under the right directorial control and script and a character he can look into himself, he would be really good. I want to see him become a hero or villain that is in a franchise, which is why I would rather see him do a Marvel movie, at least then he will be able to do a few movies as a character. I hope we do see him as one down the line.

OrgasmicPotatoe - 3/24/2013, 3:20 PM

Any comic book character that gets cut out on the editing room.

IDKwhatToChoose - 3/24/2013, 3:20 PM

He should play Spider-Man because that makes as much sense as half the comments on here :P

Turtlestrong - 3/24/2013, 3:24 PM

He has certainly had the look of Black Adam and he has taken the time to gain some good movie rep to do the role justice. Not that there is anything in place to conmpare it too, since we're just talking written source material and not a previous adaptation. Hopefully it'll happen somewhere down the road.

MotionPictureFilms - 3/24/2013, 3:49 PM

make him Bishop, wouldnt mind him as Bane, even though he aint from santa prisca, surely a half samoan, half black Bane wouldn't be too bad. Plus he definetly has the size.

BlackFlash - 3/24/2013, 3:54 PM

DC/WB take a long ass time with there CBMs and the only focus ever seems to be on Batman and Superman, they neglect pretty much everyone else and i'm finding it hard as hell to think when they would ever do a Shazam/Capt.Marvel. So i'm not even going to think about him playing Black Adam.

I will say there are some people out there that Dwayne should have played. The first person that came to mind was Bane, Tom Hardy a great actor but Dwayne was made for that role. Hopefully Hercules is a great film because this guy acting has come leaps and bounds and he deserves a big film.

USAgent - 3/24/2013, 3:58 PM

I'd like to see him play Luke Cage. If he can play Roadblock, he can play Luke Cage nuff said.

Fantine - 3/24/2013, 4:16 PM

comes across a little egotistical here

BobGarlen - 3/24/2013, 4:20 PM

Conan The Barbarian. he'd Rock (pun intended)

ToTheManInTheColdSweat - 3/24/2013, 4:27 PM

black adam

GarthRanzz - 3/24/2013, 4:29 PM

Parasite

Pokeysteve - 3/24/2013, 4:32 PM

"and that he hopes it'll respect the mythology."

Wasn't mythology Hercules a rapist and an ass in general? Pretty sure.

ricko8687 - 3/24/2013, 4:57 PM

Luke cage say no more

Pathogen - 3/24/2013, 4:59 PM

but..but its Brett Ratner. Which means the movie will suck balls.

Poor Rock. I like you, but damn. Get a better agent.

Tareeves89 - 3/24/2013, 5:09 PM

Him as Kratos would be sweet

Greengo - 3/24/2013, 5:19 PM

Peppermint Patty.

BlackPhillip - 3/24/2013, 5:20 PM

Jazzman,

He's half black. Besides, he looks more Samoan than Black.

Greengo - 3/24/2013, 5:21 PM

He's not black he's bi-racial.

StrangerX - 3/24/2013, 5:53 PM

I've always liked the Black Adam idea.

Growler - 3/24/2013, 6:00 PM

Dethlok.

1 2

Dwayne Johnson Talks Playing HERCULES And Potential Superhero Roles

The Rock offers some new details for Brett Ratner's Hercules, saying that it's "darker in tone" and that he hopes it'll respect the mythology. He also sounds certain that he'll land a superhero role someday after losing out on Shazam and Lobo.

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