John Cena is riding a career high right now. He's been in three movies this summer, including playing the villain in the most recent Fast & Furious movie, being a member of The Suicide Squad, and now he's an over the top party guy in Hulu's Vacation Friends. The former WWE Champion has a spinoff streaming series for his Suicide Squad Peacemaker character to look forward to, but could he show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well? He's certainly not turning down the possibility as he had the best response to the idea of playing The Thing in Marvel's forthcoming Fantastic Four movie.
We don't know much about the future of Marvel's first family in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but we do know there will be a future, as a Fantastic Four movie is in development with Spider-Man director Jon Watts on board to direct it. We don't know when we'll see the movie or who will play the main roles but when Esquire asked John Cena about playing the team's muscle, The Thing, he said he's up for anything. Cena explained...
I would consider most any-thing. I think keeping yourself open to options and different perspectives is a good way to go about life. This would simply be a thing that I would consider, because I like to keep my perspective open to new things.
John Cena emphasized the word "thing" more than once when saying that yes, he would consider most any opportunity, and that would include a role in the Fantastic Four movie if such a thing came his way. It's a fairly stock answer. Most actors when asked about theoretical roles don't shut the door on anything, but Cena at least has some fun with the answer. It's all quite charming.
At this point the MCU's cinematic output is set through early 2023. There are two movies that we know Marvel Studios is planning to release that have not yet been given release dates, Blade with Mahershala Ali, and Fantastic Four. There are also two place holder release dates in the back half of 2023 for Marvel movies that have not been given titles yet. Assuming nothing shows up and jumps the queue, it would seem we can expect Fantastic Four to hit in July or November of 2023. This would mean production on the film would be happening in about a year. So there's plenty of time for Marvel to figure out who will play The Thing and the rest of the family, and that's assuming the movie doesn't happen later.
And to be sure, John Cena wouldn't be the worst choice to play Benjamin Grimm in Fantastic Four. The character transforms into a walking hunk of rock, and John Cena basically already is a walking hunk of rock, so the CGI necessary to transform him into the character would be minimal. That's at least one point in his favor when this movie gets to the casting phase.
