Dwayne Johnson Wanted To Be In Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
When pre-production was starting on Star Wars: Episode VII, as J.J. Abrams and his team got the script and the logistics together, many Star Wars fans were curious to see who would be cast in the highly-anticipated movie. It seemed like every actor in Hollywood wanted to land a role in a new Star Wars movie. And we mean everyone. Dwayne Johnson tossed his hat in the Star Wars – Episode VII ring. He was all about the chance to enter this new galaxy.
In an interview with Australian news outlet News.com.au, while promoting G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Dwayne Johnson opened up about his childhood memories of playing with G.I. Joe and Star Wars action figures. He was already in a G.I. Joe movie, so at the time Dwayne Johnson was making his play for the Star Wars saga.
Dwayne Johnson said, “So when I got the call saying, ‘How do you feel about becoming the leader of the G.I. Joes?’ it was like if I got a call from George Lucas saying, ‘I want you to be in Star Wars.‘ I‘m gonna call J.J. and you‘re gonna help by printing it and I’m gonna be in Star Wars!”
Could you picture Dwayne Johnson as a Jedi Knight? First off, he’s massive, standing 6′ 5″ and weighing in at 264 pounds. We’ve never seen anyone in a Star Wars movie that big — outside of Chewbacca — so maybe Dwayne Johnson would stick out like a sore thumb if he were in the new movie.
And while at the time Dwayne Johnson was already a megastar, he’s now something of a mega-megastar. Adding him into the Star Wars franchise would seem like a bit of a stretch. Mostly because he’s just too famous. Even for a franchise that’s as big as they come, there seem to be upper limits on who would actually be a good fit for a movie or series.
At the time of The Force Awakens, the Star Wars franchise was going through a reset so adding relatively unknown faces like Daisy Ridley and John Boyega made sense. Fans wanted to come into it with fresh eyes while also catching up with Harrison Ford’s Han Solo and Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia. Dwayne Johnson would have been a distraction even then. Now? Forget it.
That being said, we suppose there is still some chance we eventually see Dwayne Johnson in a Star Wars movie. After all, he ran the comic book superhero route with Black Adam, so there really aren’t too many more massive franchise boxes to check.
