Like the WWE fighters-turned actors before him, John Cena’s Hollywood career has really heated up and he’s finally ready to take on the coveted family comedy. He’ll play a goofy firefighter, who has to extinguish the flames that come with taking care of three siblings with lost parents. Oh, and he’ll have none other than Key and Peele sketch comedian Keegan-Michael Key by his side. Check out the trailer for Playing With Fire:
This looks like it’s John Cena’s own sort of The Game Plan. After Dwayne Johnson started his career off with badass roles in The Scorpion King, The Rundown and Doom, he appealed to younger audiences in the 2007 Disney film about a football player who discovers he has a young daughter. Cena’s Fast & Furious 9 costar Vin Diesel also went for this career move in 2005’s The Pacifier and Dave Bautista will soon star alongside do the same and star alongside a 10-year-old actress in My Spy.
In the upcoming Paramount release, John Cena plays Jake Carson, a fire superintendent of an elite team also including Bloodline’s John Leguizamo and X-Men’s Tyler Mane. When they clumsily rescue three children played by Deadpool’s Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Brianna Hildebrand, Christian Convery and Finley Rose Slater, antics ensue! The firefighters are left to take care of them, and nerf fights, dance parties and a room full of bubbles go down.
Keegan-Michael Key, who has been seriously in everything lately from Toy Story 4 and with Beyoncé in The Lion King, looks like he’ll inject his high-strung character humor to his role, calling out Hildebrand’s teen attitude and getting disgusted by the farts of the youngest of the children. John Leguizamo is also known for his hilarious voice role of Sid in the Ice Age movies, besides his roles in John Wick and Spawn, so he’ll likely fit right in.
John Cena has been on fire as an actor since being a scene-stealer on 2015’s Trainwreck. He’s since starred in comedies including Sisters, Daddy’s Home and Blockers. He also took on the role of Ferdinand in Blue Sky’s 2017 animated flick and Agent Burns in Transformers spinoff Bumblebee.
He hasn’t been a stranger to family-friendly fare, hosting the Kids Choice Awards last year and has recently started hosting a remake to Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? over the summer. Coming up, he’ll also have another voice role as Yoshi the polar bear in The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle, has been reportedly been eyed for a role in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and is currently filming Fast & Furious 9 for a new, undisclosed role.
Playing With Fire hits theaters on November 8, 2019 alongside Midway and Doctor Sleep. Are you excited to see the family comedy? Sound off in the comments.
