Earlier this month, a pretty wild rumour started doing the rounds online suggesting Marvel Studios wants Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to play Apocalypse in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
An X-Men reboot - hopefully titled "Uncanny X-Men" - will be released after Avengers: Secret Wars, but is the pro wrestler turned Hollywood A-Lister a good fit for the MCU? It's no secret that he attempted to exert creative control over the DC Extended Universe after attempting to turn it into the "DJ Extended Universe" with Black Adam!
That won't fly with Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige, but if The Rock is willing to play ball, then he could make for a suitably formidable En Sabah Nur in a future live-action X-Men movie.
In some new fan art, we get an idea of what he'll look like as the villainous Apocalypse and, honestly, it works. We still don't know how old the X-Men themselves will be, but if the cast is primarily made up of unknown teens, then casting a huge star as the villain would be a smart move.
"Following the recent rumors and the [X-Men '97] finale, I decided to create my version of En Sabah Nur, aka Apocalypse," artist @mikeposters explains. "I think he’s an incredible character who deserves to be brought back to the big screen."
"As a huge fan of Dwayne Johnson, I believe he would be perfect to portray this iconic villain. His commanding presence and natural charisma would be a perfect match for Apocalypse’s powerful aura," he adds. "Just imagine [The Rock] as a supervillain, ready to conquer the world with his phenomenal powers! I would love to see that in theaters."
In 2021, Seven Bucks Productions' Hiram Garcia confirmed that Johnson and Feige have met and discussed the possibility of bringing him into the MCU.
"[Dwayne Johnson] and Kevin [Feige] have a great relationship and we’ve flirted around a few ideas before, but nothing serious," Garcia explained. "There’s a mutual admiration for what we each have been doing and what Kevin has built over there is truly incredible. Ultimately though for us, we’ve always been very committed to what we wanted to build with Black Adam."
Apocalypse was created by writer Louise Simonson and artist Jackson Guice, first appearing in X-Factor #5 in 1986. The ancient mutant believes in the concept of "survival of the fittest," and his desire to bring about the evolution of mutantkind by any means necessary, often through destructive and genocidal methods.
He sees himself as a god-like figure and seeks to impose his vision of mutant supremacy upon the world and has assembled various groups of mutant followers, known as the "Four Horsemen," to serve his purposes. Oscar Isaac previously played the villain in 2016's X-Men: Apocalypse.
Check out this awesome X-Men fan art in the Instagram post below.