Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a big man. And he does big movies (just watch his latest, Red Notice, on Netflix). So, uh, why wouldn't he want to play one of the biggest roles in the history of the blockbuster film industry? In a new edition of US Esquire's Explain This video series, The Rock tossed his name into the ring for consideration to play the next James Bond.
Esquire's video opens with Johnson explaining his family's connection to the long-running secret agent franchise. "Yes, my grandfather was a Bond villain in You Only Live Twice with Sean Connery. Very, very cool," he said, referring to actor Peter Maivia, who played a minor villain who fought Connery's Bond.
The Rock continued, admitting that he's a fan of the franchise—but is setting his sights high. "I would like to follow in his footsteps and be the next Bond," he said. "I don't want to be a villain. Gotta be Bond."
The door is firmly open, as Daniel Craig's 15-year run on the character came to a close last month with the release of No Time To Die. And the powers that be behind Bond aren't limiting themselves—entirely. They've say that Bond has to be male, but shouldn't be limited to just white guys. “He can be of any colour, but he is male," producer Barbara Broccoli told Variety.
But one place where The Rock might struggle is the requirement (or maybe just preference?!) that James Bond remain British, something that Dwayne Johnson definitively is not.
“You think of him as being from Britain or the Commonwealth, but Britain is a very diverse place,” producer Michael G. Wilson, who also runs the Bond franchise with Broccoli, said. We haven't heard The Rock give a British accent a try. And not sure we want to?
This being said, The Rock may have to settle for what we can call an "alternate" Bond kind of movie; something like Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest or Christopher Nolan's Tenet. A movie that feels like a Bond movie, but with characters with different names (and a bit more genre/stylistic flexibility). Johnson can get a good director on board, and we can get this show on the road. Who says no?
Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.
