As busy as Dwayne Johnson has been in previous years, the man also known as “The Rock” has only one picture on the 2025 movie schedule. That’s probably because of his demanding schedule seeing him return to the world of Moana, both through its 2024 sequel and the upcoming live-action Disney movie remaking the original. The man truly doesn’t know the meaning of the word rest, and after learning why he fired his agents early on in his acting career, you can totally see why.
With GQ making the Red One star one of its 2024 Men of the Year, an accompanying profile has chronicled Johnson’s rise to fame from his days as a villain in The Mummy Returns. And apparently, Will Smith and George Clooney were the pop culture idols The Rock wanted to exceed right from the start. Basically, if you weren’t smelling what Dwayne Johnson was cooking in his career, you got the boot - and a new agent would take your place.
One can still see that sort of momentum still at work in the man’s career, as well as view the benefits that have been reaped in the meantime. Red One’s mammoth 2024 streaming success is just the most recent sign of Johnson’s continued strength in the world of entertainment. Even when mixed in with some not so rosy stories of the recent past, like the debacle that was WB’s Black Adam, the hustle of this WWE icon cannot be denied.
2025 might see a new variant of blood, sweat, and tears enter into The Rock’s corner, as everything we know about The Smashing Machine has Dwayne Johnson’s first A24 project sounding like a future awards contender. Reuniting with Jungle Cruise co-star Emily Blunt certainly isn't a bad move to realize such ambitions either, as their past experience could only help the man up his game even further.
That isn’t a sign that the man has been scared away from blockbuster franchises and sequels entirely, as Johnson’s upcoming movies also include that third Jumanji sequel in the works. Intended for release in December 2026, it already sounds like the Moana franchise star has that project lined up for whenever he’s finished playing Maui again.
This isn’t the kind of workload that’s meant for the faint of heart, so I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone who wasn’t in alignment with Dwayne Johnson’s current goals would find themselves taken off the team just as quickly as those early days. I mean, when’s the last time you heard a story about George Clooney or Will Smith having a massive streaming hit that salvaged a box office bomb in the process?
It may not be Christmas, but action fans still have a lot to enjoy with Red One. Should you want to get one last round of holly jollyness on your way into the new year, you can stream that picture through access to a Prime Video subscription. That is, if you’re not already done saying “you’re welcome” to Moana 2, which is still currently running in theaters.
