Prognosticating his imminent downfall might be several steps wide of the mark, but the evidence is nonetheless stacking up that Dwayne Johnson‘s refusal to budge from his tried-and-trusted formula for success might be running out of gas.
A live-action remake of a Disney animation that released less than seven years ago, a standalone entry in a franchise he swore he’d never return to, and a blockbuster action comedy that’ll never see the inside of a theater are the next three projects on his docket, which comes hot on the heels of Young Rock being canceled and back-to-back DC bombs in the form of Black Adam and DC League of Super-Pets.
They say familiarity breeds contempt for a reason, but The Rock’s extracurricular activities have been suffering, too. While his Teremana tequila business is thriving – no doubt because everyone loves to hit the hard stuff every now and again – his relaunched XFL didn’t fare quite as well after posting a $60 million loss in its first season.
The actor, producer, and entrepreneur did put on a brave face in the aftermath, though, and he’s determined to learn from any mistakes moving forward after revealing he was fresh out of a seven-hour board meeting mapping out the league’s future.
Even the unlimited charisma of Johnson doesn’t sound anywhere near enticing enough to make the prospect of a seven-hour meeting sound anything less than a nightmare made flesh, so let’s hope that it achieved the required goals heading in. By even getting a second season, the XFL has already succeeded where it had failed twice over in the past, so there’s clearly something there than can be built upon, even if guaranteed profit isn’t quite on the agenda as of yet.