It’s hard to imagine this now, when he’s been a busy movie star for ages, but Dwayne Johnson’s first blockbuster appearance was pretty small. The year was 2001, and he was a big star in wrestling — his film debut was in the 1999 doc Beyond the Mat — but when he tried to cross over into movies, he did so with baby steps, making a cameo as the fearsome Scorpion King in the sequel The Mummy Returns. He returned to the character, now as a hero, in the next year’s spin-off The Scorpion King, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Now, dozens of films later, he’s about to return to his first triumph. Sort of. According to Deadline, he’s looking to reboot the Scorpion King franchise. Thing is, Johnson may not actually returning to the role, having a full schedule through 2022. Instead he’ll at the very least produce it, allowing a new actor to assume the role. Still, Deadline speculates he may at least make an appearance.
Johnson’s been busy, even during the pandemic, with Netflix’s Red Notice and the superhero pic Black Adam on the docket. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a time, as in 2001, when he would simply drop in for a couple appearances, one of those mostly ensconced in CGI, as was the cast in The Mummy Returns. Luckily, the spin-off was able to be pulled-off without much overflow with the then-Mummy series. Good, because the one with Tom Cruise likely killed that IP for at least a few more years.
(Via Deadline)