I’ve long considered the possibilities of the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Cinematic Universe. Would it begin with Central Intelligence—a movie that shows the humble origin of our hero as a chubby teen? Or would Johnson’s character actually begin in 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, where Smolder Bravestone escapes the game to save the real world. Or, perhaps, the DTRJCU has been told chronologically, and our present-day Johnson is just the resurrected Scorpion King? I think the only logical end cap of this DTRJCU timeline would be Ballers, where Johnson’s stopped all the threats to mankind, and settled down to ball in the sports entertainment industry.
As it turns out, these aren’t only questions that keep me alone up at night, because the DTRJCU actually exists. Hiram Garcia, president of production at Johnson’s Seven Bucks production company, confirmed to Huffington Post that all the actor’s movies are connected:
In our business, the ultimate goal is everyone wants to create a universe, so if we can somehow, if there’s a master plan happening right now that you just don’t know. But maybe in about 10 more years, we’re gonna have our version of an ‘Infinity War,’ a Dwayne Johnson War. Just say you heard it here first, and that we’re damn brilliant for doing it.
Obviously, the Dwayne Johnson version of Infinity War would be Dwayne Johnson vs Dwayne Johnson. And even beyond the eventual DTRJCU, Garcia points out the obvious through line of every one of these movies.
There very much is always a thread … It’s always about a guy who’s somehow getting better, even just a little bit. If you look at the most extreme version, ‘Pain and Gain,’ even as that character, he got a little bit better somehow at the end. … That’s something we do try to look for in our movies. There’s always a little bit of healing. There’s always a little bit of getting better, coupled with some kind of a family tie, something of heart.
That would be clear from the very beginning, where 5,000 years ago Mathayus’ entire story begins with avenging the murder of his brother and leads to him becoming the Scorpion King. Obviously, when Rick uses the spear of Osiris to banish him back into the Underworld in The Mummy Returns, he’s actually just returning Mathayus’ soul to his body (which he gave to Anubis), and is left as an immortal being to protect the earth for eternity. It only stands to reason that eventually that duty would include jumping from skyscrapers, lifeguard duties with Zac Efron, and bringing an NFL team to Vegas.
The arc of the DTRJCU is long, but it bends toward dominating media, sports, and entertainment. All hail future president Scorpion King.