Dwayne Johnson may have a dream MCU role, but his golden rule poses a big problem. The Rock’s omnipresence in Hollywood has become a meme at this point, with the WWE star featuring in several of the last decade’s biggest blockbusters. This nearly culminated in a central role in the DCEU timeline before his movie, Black Adam, immediately preceded the announcement that the DCU would reboot the franchise, thereby consigning the DCEU and Johnson’s role to the DC movie history books.
Before Black Adam, however, Dwayne Johnson had his eye on an iconic Marvel character. After an interview with Kevin Feige revealed his fondness for the superstar and willingness to bring him into the MCU fold, Dwayne Johnson responded with the allusion that he would like to portray Luke Cage. Now that Luke Cage’s current actor, Mike Colter, has suggested he may not be available to reprise the role, this may leave the door open for a Luke Cage recasting. Despite his previous comments, however, Dwayne Johnson may have precluded himself thanks to one contract issue.
Dwayne Johnson’s “No Losing” Rule Would Make The MCU’s Luke Cage Way Harder To Get Right
Dwayne Johnson reportedly has a clause in his acting contracts that states he can never outright lose a fight. This allegedly stems from his tenure as Hobbs in the Fast and Furious franchise and is a clause shared by his co-stars, Vin Diesel and Jason Statham. The clause seems to track with Johnson’s recent cinematic history, with his appearance as Black Adam seeing him run rings around his enemies and only “losing” to an Eternium-imbued rocket after he caught it mid-flight.
The post-credits scene for Black Adam set up a fight between him and Superman, which would have been an interesting fight to witness with this contract in mind.
While this clause may suit Black Adam, whose excessive power levels rival those of Superman, the same cannot be said of Luke Cage. Luke Cage is the kind of street-level hero who certainly wins most of his fights – especially when they’re against non-superpowered rivals – but is far from undefeated. In fact, Dwayne Johnson’s preference for Cage may be a thing of the past given his tenure as Black Adam was so lofty, making the street-level brawler feel positively diminutive by comparison.
Why Luke Cage Needs To Lose Some Fights In Marvel & The MCU
Cage has unbreakable skin, but is not impervious to everything. If Cage’s powers rendered him entirely indestructible, he would be among the MCU’s most powerful heroes. Instead, Cage is a more street-level hero whose powers require contextualizing in a cinematic universe that also houses such vastly powerful characters as Hulk and Captain Marvel, to name a couple. Making Cage fallible also helps to humanize him in a way that endears him further to the audience and helps him gel with the rest of the Defenders, who look scrappy when compared to the Avengers.
Furthermore, the MCU is not in the habit of introducing characters that cannot lose. One of many things the franchise does well is ensure that the stakes remain high by showing that even someone like Captain Marvel can find herself on the losing side of a battle. With that in mind, introducing any character capable of honoring this clause would feel completely out of place in the MCU, thereby casting doubt on the Rock’s future MCU prospects unless this particular clause is dropped.
