WWE Superstar John Cena is arguably the biggest wrestler-turned-actor after Dwayne Johnson. John has given spectacular performances in his acting career, and they’ve helped him achieve great success in Hollywood.
The Cenation leader’s fanbase has been massive ever since his WWE days, and it has only extended through his Hollywood success. Cena’s success is usually compared to that of Dwayne Johnson, and Cena is referred to as being in his footsteps.
John and Dwayne are compared a lot with each other, but do you know John Cena nearly fought Dwayne Johnson in a $365 Million DCU movie? Yes, it’s actually true, and that $365 Million DCU movie was the 2019 Superhero film “Shazam.”
In the original plans for Shazam that went into pre-production in 2009, Dwayne Johnson was considered to star as the villain Black Adam. The film was made official in 2014 and Dwayne was set to star as the Black Adam; however, these plans were scrapped, and later Dwayne was cast in a solo Black Adam project.
In January 2022, John Cena revealed on The Happy Sad Confused podcast that he had his eye on Shazam’s character. He said, “I can’t tell you how many superhero roles I’ve been rejected for. Shazam is certainly one. I think like a child, so Shazam was super interesting to me, and when I read the script, a lot of times, like, this is the thing, I don’t chase ‘I want to do this,’ I always have to read it.”
If both John Cena and Dwayne Johnson had been cast in “Shazam,” we could have seen them fighting in the $365 Million DCU movie, and it would have been really epic.
Will John Cena continue as the Peacemaker in DCU?
Even after his career-best performance as the Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad 2021, there were a lot of speculations about whether John Cena will continue as the Peacemaker in DCU or not.
The reason for these speculations was the massive shakeup James Gunn and Peter Safran made after being appointed as co-heads of the newly formed DC Studios. Although the duo made a lot of surprising decisions, removing John from Peacemaker’s character wasn’t one of them.
It has been confirmed that John Cena will continue to portray Peacemaker in the DCU. The confirmation hint was given by John during his surprise return to the WWE on December 16, 2022, during a Smackdown episode. Cena name-dropped Peacemaker during his promo, and as promos in WWE are scripted, it was also on purpose. Following that Smackdown episode, it was reported that John Cena will continue as Peacemaker in the DC Universe.
Looking at John’s fabulous performance as the Peacemaker in James Gunn’s Suicide Squad in 2021, it would have been a crime not to continue with him. Thus, Cena continuing as the Peacemaker in the DCU is the best possible decision. It will be interesting to see what new elements he will add to his already great character as the Peacemaker in future projects!