Three Guesses On The DC Character Dwayne Johnson Is Going To Play

Dwayne Johnson, the actor formerly (and occasionally still) known as WWE superstar The Rock, is such a tease.

We’ve known for a bit that he had talked to DC about playing someone in an upcoming film. What movie? We don’t know that. Which DC hero or villain? We’re still fuzzy on that too.

But before a preview of Hercules, Johnson offered up some broad but nonetheless tantalizing hints at who it could be.

"“The first quality we were looking for was that he had to be extremely complex and have a lot going on.”“The other quality was that he had to – the character we were looking for had to be well-known but never brought to life.”“The third thing – and most important – is he had to be a badass [expletive], OK, and on a Superman level of power, where [he] could throw down.”"

The commenters on this Spinoff Online piece have come up with some guesses, and we approve of three of them:

Lobo

The Main Man hasn’t been seen on screen before, and he certainly can give Superman a run for his money in the raw power department. Is he “extremely complex?” That’s a bit trickier to say, and like many comics-related questions, it really boils down to this answer: it depends on who’s writing him. Lobo was originally conceived as a parody of violent super heroes but made many appearances where he seemed like the very thing he was supposed to be sending up. His morality has always been … flexible, so maybe that equals complex in Johnson’s mind.

Martian Manhunter

If DC is really trying to turn the next Man of Steel movie into a Justice League launchpad, this makes all kinds of sense. We know J’onn J’onzz is one of the most powerful DC super heroes around, especially since his telepathy gives him an added dimension most others lack. His tragic back story and the fact that he doesn’t even appear in his true form most of the time definitely qualify as complex. And while some commenters pointed out that he was features on Smallville, maybe that can be dismissed as a technicality, seeing as it was on a TV show.

Black Adam

One of the earliest guesses could still turn out to be true. Adam has all the powers of Shazam/Captain Marvel and is way more brutal in the way he uses them. He’s been portrayed as a straight-up villain, a hero and just about every stop in-between. And he’s never been seen in a DC movie or on TV. All boxes are checked off.

Of course, Green Lantern John Stewart is still a popular guess as well. And let’s throw one more in there: Black Lightning. Whoever it is, here’s hoping Johnson can talk about it in something other than riddles pretty soon. The suspense is painful!