Dwayne The Rock Johnson appeared at the Comic-Con in Los Angeles, and although he was on the stage for slightly less than half an hour, we have got a chance to learn more about his new film, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Johnson also talked about why he wanted to create this movie in particular and how he hopes to advice new people in Hollywood.
Stan Lee always speaks at several Comic-Con panels, but since The Rock was there, Lee wanted to introduce this man personally. Johnson is indeed a huge star, and he deserves such treatment by other greats. Lee addressed Dwayne as “one of the best actors” and “one of the nicest guys” in the industry.
The fans saw the Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle trailer as Johnson was excited to make a reboot of the popular film. He said: “I saw the original, and when they came to me with the idea of possibly making a continuation 25 years later, I loved it. It was the opportunity that we had to introduce Jumanji to a whole new generation. I think we made a good movie.”
The director of the new Jumanji film is Jake Kasdan whereas Chris McKenna provided the story. We should expect a different movie from the Robin Williams classic. Speaking of Robin Williams, he was the one who inspired one of the highest paid actors to create this film: “It was my personal way of really paying homage and respect to the one man who created the Jumanji magic to begin with, Mr. Robin Williams.”
Johnson will be the video game avatar that is played by a nerdy teenager. The famous Hollywood star was asked what was the nerdiest thing about him while he was at school but this guy didn’t want to reveal too much, so he mentioned the infamous fanny pack. He said: “The fanny pack. Besides the fanny pack? … it doesn’t matter what the nerdiest thing about me was!” Even The Rock avoided the answer, the fans seemed not to care about it.
Johnson also recalled his debut in Hollywood and how the superstars at the time supported him. He said: “In the year 2000, I made a movie called “The Scorpion King … when I first broke in [to Hollywood], all those guys — so from Harrison [Ford], [Sylvester] Stallone, definitely [Arnold] Schwarzenegger — were so gracious to me and they were so welcoming … So at any opportunity I have I always make sure that I pass that along, which is always be good to people when you’re coming up in life because you never know what’s going to happen down the road.”
Johnson quit wrestling to become an actor, but he still enjoys watching it, and he knows what’s going on in the industry. He was asked which of the current professional wrestlers would he take on and he had a few names in his mind.
“One would be Triple H, The Game [Paul Michael Levesque]. The other would be The Beast, Brock Lesnar,” Johnson said, also mentioning Roman Reigns.
He teased the fans about running for a president. Even though he didn’t reveal much, he said: “Am I going to run for president? After allowing the chanting from the crowd to go down, he simply said, “I think ‘the people’s president” has a really nice ring to it, I’m just saying.”
Besides the official trailer, Johnson shared behind-the-scenes shots and how this film was made. Karen Gillan summed the movie up perfectly: “It’s packed full of amazing action sequences, and it makes me look really cool.”
In the end, he wanted to make a joke and film a video as if no-one was there to watch Dwayne, but you can hear people in the back talking. When he turned around people were cheering, and Dwayne Johnson enjoyed the moment.
