John Cena and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson now share not one, but two film franchises: Fast & Furious and the DC Extended Universe. With that in mind, there has been much fan excitement and speculation regarding whether or not the former professional wrestling rivals will duke it out on the big screen. Cena says he would love to see such a confrontation happen, though cautions fans that it’s far from guaranteed, in spite of how “inevitable” it might seem.
“You know me. Ready, willing, and able. And answering the phone whenever it rings. I’m good,” Cena told ComicBook.com when asked if a cinematic battle between himself and Johnson was in the cards. “I think that the excitement is starting to build with fans, whether you talk about the conversation of Fast, or you talk about now the DC Universe. I don’t want to say we’re on a crash course and it’s inevitable. I want to, because I’m a fan. But we’ll see. We’ll see what happens. Tell me what he says.”
Cena and Johnson, of course, have had a very similar path to success. They both got their start in the world of professional wrestling and ascended to the top of WWE (formerly WWF) before making the jump to Hollywood. As The Rock, Johnson was easily one of the biggest stars of WWF’s Attitude Era, second only to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, with Cena subsequently becoming WWE’s biggest star during the Ruthless Aggression era and beyond.
While it remains to be seen if the two will ever have some kind of showdown in a Fast & Furious or DC film, Cena and Johnson did have a multi-year rivalry in WWE a number of years ago. After years away from the company, Johnson returned to WWE in 2011 to host WrestleMania XXVII, during which he cost Cena the WWE Championship by interfering in his main event match against The Miz.
This resulted in a feud between the two stars, culminating in a main event match one year later at WrestleMania XXVIII, which saw The People’s Champ ultimately reign victorious over the Doctor of Thuganomics. Cena and Johnson had a rematch with the WWE Championship on the line another year later at WrestleMania 29, with Cena getting the win this time around.
Notably, despite being in two film franchises together, Cena and Johnson have yet to actually appear on-screen together in either of them. Johnson made his Fast & Furious debut as Luke Hobbs in 2011’s Fast Five, subsequently reprising the role in Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious. Meanwhile, Cena made his franchise debut as Jakob Toretto in this year’s F9. Johnson sat out F9, having instead recently appeared in the 2019 spinoff film Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. Johnson says he has no current plans to appear in the final two mainline Fast & Furious films.
As far as their DC projects are concerned, none of them are actually out yet. Cena is set to star as Christopher Smith/Peacemaker in director James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, which is set to hit theaters and HBO Max in just over a week on Aug. 6. Cena will also reprise his role for a solo Peacemaker series on HBO Max, which is expected to premiere early next year.
Meanwhile, Johnson is set to star as the eponymous anti-hero of Black Adam, a spinoff of Shazam!. A Black Adam film has been in development for years, with the Johnson-led superhero blockbuster finally beginning production this past April. Black Adam is currently scheduled for release on July 29, 2022.
Source: ComicBook.com
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