UPDATE: The reboot’s villain slate keeps shifting, as the Driver villain rumor has been revised to Mister Sinister rather than Magneto.
The X-Men rumor mill just found its biggest name yet.
Dwayne Johnson is reportedly Marvel Studios’ “top choice” to play Apocalypse in the MCU’s Mutant Saga, according to scooper MyTimeToShineHello, who posted the claim Thursday.
File it under rumor, and reach for the salt.
Marvel Studios still hasn’t officially announced a single actor for Jake Schreier’s X-Men, “top choice” is wish-list language rather than a signed deal, and MyTimeToShineHello’s track record is hit-and-miss.
This also isn’t the first time The Rock’s name has been attached to En Sabah Nur, as the same chatter made the rounds back in 2024 and again last year.
Funny Timing: The Rumor Lands Right As Moana Bombs
Worth noting is when this one surfaced.
The claim hit X on Thursday, the very day Johnson’s live-action Moana started previews on its way to a $4.5 million night, with weekend estimates plummeting to the high $30 millions on a $250 million budget. Three weeks ago, tracking had the movie opening to $85 million.
Nothing changes the conversation around a star’s bomb quite like a shiny Marvel rumor. Make of the timing what you will, but right now it’s Johnson who needs the win, not Marvel.
The Rock Has Been Circling Marvel Since Before Black Adam
That said, the smoke here is real, and it goes back years.
All the way back in 2019, Johnson congratulated Kevin Feige on Avengers: Endgame and revealed the two had been trying to get dinner on the books for months.
While promoting Black Adam in 2022, Johnson told Total Film he believed the DC and Marvel universes should cross paths one day, with The Rock, naturally, at the center of it.
Then when the DCU imploded and James Gunn showed him the door, Johnson name-dropped Marvel in his Black Adam exit statement, writing that he will always root for DC “(and Marvel) to win and WIN BIG.”
So no, the idea of The Rock in the MCU isn’t coming out of nowhere. The question is whether Apocalypse is the right fit.
I’ll Admit It: En Sabah Nur Came To Mind
Here is where I’ll give the rumor some credit.
While watching this week’s Episode 4 of X-Men ’97 Season 2 — which charts En Sabah Nur’s rise into Apocalypse and earned a 10/10 from me — Johnson as En Sabah Nur actually crossed my mind.
The size, the presence, the charisma of a man who believes he’s a god: physically, Johnson fits the ancient mutant like few actors working today.
So the fan-cast makes sense on paper. The problems start when you think about how it would actually play out.
The Problem: Nobody Sees The Character. They See The Rock.
Johnson may simply be too big a name for the role.
Audiences don’t watch Dwayne Johnson characters; they watch The Rock. It’s part of what may have sank Black Adam — the brand swallowed the character whole — and Apocalypse would run the same risk.
The moment that voice comes out of En Sabah Nur, you’re not looking at the first mutant. You’re looking at the Team Bring It guy in blue makeup.
The Oscar Isaac Problem: Kiss The Comic-Accurate Look Goodbye
Then there’s the look.
When Oscar Isaac played the character in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse, Fox passed on the comic-accurate design in favor of a version that kept the actor recognizable and got roasted for it with the infamous Ivan Ooze comparisons.
Ironhead Studio’s Jose Fernandez, who was outbid on the design, later sculpted his own comic-accurate Apocalypse that showed exactly what could have been.
Expect the same story with Johnson, only more so. Stars at his level don’t sign on to disappear under prosthetics. It’s the same reason it’s been said that Pedro Pascal wanted his face shown in The Mandalorian, canon be damned.
A Dwayne Johnson Apocalypse would be designed so you always know it’s Dwayne Johnson, which defeats the entire point of the character.
X-Men ’97 just showed how well a fully comic-accurate Apocalypse plays. The MCU should take the note.
Where Marvel’s X-Men Reboot Stands
Jake Schreier (Thunderbolts*) is directing the X-Men reboot, with Beef creator Lee Sung Jin writing alongside The Bear‘s Joanna Calo — the writer recently confirmed the X-Men are for everybody, another sign Hollywood’s message-first era is winding down.
Kevin Feige has framed the film as a youth-focused reset arriving after Avengers: Secret Wars, with the Fox-era mutants returning first in Avengers: Doomsday this December.
The casting chatter is running hot ahead of Comic-Con: Wagner Moura is reportedly the top choice for Mister Sinister, Sabrina Carpenter has been floated for Emma Frost or Dazzler, and Obsession breakout Inde Navarrette says she already met with Schreier.
Every name — confirmed, claimed, and everything in between — is being tracked in our running X-Men reboot casting rumor tracker. Something tells me The Rock’s name just landed on the “believe it when a trade says it” pile.
