Credit: Far Out / Warner Bros
Wed 29 July 2026 3:30, UK
Charisma can only get you so far in Hollywood, something it’s beginning to look an awful lot like Dwayne Johnson is finding out the hard way, with the wrestler-turned-actor currently in a make-or-break moment.
For a while, he more than lived up to his self-appointed tag of ‘Franchise Viagra’, which he earned by dragging several established franchises back from the doldrums, and he grew accustomed to everything he touched turning into box office gold, which is why he was the highest-paid star in the business.
However, ‘The Rock’ is in serious danger of running aground. He hasn’t starred in an unqualified hit since 2019’s Jumanji: The Next Level, with audiences clearly growing tired of his schtick, which almost always involves him headlining a big-budget action comedy with bountiful amounts of CGI.
Yes, he showcased his dramatic chops in Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, blew Christopher Nolan away, and earned a Golden Globe nomination for ‘Best Actor – Drama’, but that doesn’t mean the sports biopic didn’t bomb, because it did. It’s crunch time, but comedy definitely isn’t the way to go.
Whenever Johnson has starred in an out-and-out comedy, the results have been dire. The Tooth Fairy was a pile of shite, Baywatch was also a pile of shite, with the star’s approach to the art form apparently mugging as hard as he can. Maybe he just needs a good script, something neither of those films had, but as far as comedy actors go, Johnson only has one name at the top of the greatness pile.
“I don’t mean this in a weird way, but I was so enamoured with Gene Wilder,” he responded when asked about his first cinematic crush. “Growing up, I loved Richard Pryor, I loved Elvis, but I think Willy Wonka was the thing that really grabbed me about Gene Wilder.” Weird? Not really, because he was great.
Maybe not crush-worthy in the conventional sense, but you can’t talk about the industry’s all-time comedic greats without mentioning the eccentric, idiosyncratic, and neurotic star of Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Stir Crazy, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and, of course, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
An Academy Award nominee for The Producers, the first of his seminal collaborations with Mel Brooks, Wilder had the innate ability to both swing for the fences and pitch his performances to the cheap seats, while also being able to wring pathos out of characters who seemed irredeemable at first glance.
In another world, Johnson could have emulated his comedy idol, with Tim Burton considering him for the Wonka role in his Johnny Depp-starring remake. It would have been something to see; not necessarily good, but definitely something, and it would have brought his Wilder fandom full circle in the most bizarre circumstances imaginable.
