Upcoming Dwayne Johnson Movies To Keep On Your Radar

(Welcome to On Your Radar, a series where we take a look at what's next for the biggest actors and filmmakers, and why you should be excited...or not.)Dwayne Johnson is one of the busiest people in Hollywood, constantly working (and working out), hustling on side projects, and occasionally eating mountains of pancakes as a reward. It's easy for all of The Rock's announcements about new projects to get lost in the shuffle, so here is a comprehensive, convenient list of upcoming Dwayne Johnson movies we know about.

Johnson is reuniting with director Rawson Marshall Thurber (Skyscraper, Central Intelligence) for this globe-spanning thriller that also stars Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot. Johnson plays the FBI's top profiler, tasked with tracking down the world's greatest art thief (Gadot) and the world's greatest con artist (Reynolds) in the wake of a massive heist. Count me in. Red Notice hits Netflix on November 12, 2021.

Not to be confused with Red Notice, Red One is a "globe-trotting, four-quadrant action-adventure comedy, imagining a whole new universe to explore within the holiday genre." That's pretty vague, but the assumption is that Johnson would be playing either literally Santa Claus, or maybe a Santa-esque figure. He's previously said of the project, "Imagine Hobbs meets Miracle on 34th Street," so...yeah. Not sure exactly what to do with that information, but there you have it. Chris Morgan (Fast Five) is writing the screenplay, and this one is expected to arrive via Amazon Studios in time for the 2023 holiday season.

Yes, this movie is finally happening, after well over a decade of discussions and rumors and development. Johnson plays the titular anti-hero, an angry, mega-strong character who was imprisoned for 5,000 years after misusing his abilities and who then comes face to face with the Justice Society of America. Black Adam arrives in theaters on July 29, 2022.

Johnson lends his voice to Krypto the Super-Dog in this animated family film centering on animals in the DC Universe and Krypto needing to save the day while Superman is on vacation. Kevin Hart, Keanu Reeves, Kate McKinnon, Vanessa Bayer, John Krasinski, Diego Luna, and Natasha Lyonne round out the cast, and DC League of Super-Pets is slated for release on May 20, 2022.

After working together on Jungle Cruise, Johnson is set to reunite with Emily Blunt for a Netflix superhero movie called Ball and Chain, an adaptation of the '90s comic of the same name by Scott Lobdell. Emily V. Gordon (The Big Sick) is writing the script, which centers on a couple that's struggling in their marriage and are granted superpowers when a freak meteor shower hits. The trouble is that their powers only function when the pair works together.

The Rock is also apparently taking on the role of folk hero John Henry in a new movie. Legend has it that Henry was a blue collar worker who was so strong that he agreed to race a steam-powered rock-drilling machine in a contest by using a hammer to smash his way through a mountainside. He won, but the victory was bittersweet: his heart gave out and he died right as the competition ended. We first heard about this version of the story, which will be directed by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle helmer Jake Kasdan, back in 2018 and haven't heard a peep since, so I'm not sure what its status is at the moment.

Another project we heard about in 2018 was The King, a movie set to be directed by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future) in which Johnson would play Hawaiian king Kamehameha, the man who united the Hawaiian islands in the early 1800s after years of conflict. Braveheart screenwriter Randall Wallace wrote the script. This movie was supposed to film in 2020, but that didn't happen for obvious reasons; I'm curious to see if it continues to move forward with the same people attached.

In 2015, word came out that The Rock was going to star in a remake of John Carpenter's cult classic film Big Trouble in Little China. A few years later, one of Johnson's frequent producers clarified that it wasn't actually a remake, but a continuation of the original movie — so don't expect to see Johnson don the white tank-top of Kurt Russell's Jack Burton. (If the movie happens at all, that is.)