"He'd make a great Shao Kahn": Internet reacts to Dwayne Johnson x Mortal Kombat 2 casting rumors

In a recent interview with Men’s Journal, Dwayne Johnson recently revealed he's working on another video game movie project. Following this, the Mortal Kombat video game series’ creator Ed Boon sparked a casting rumor when he tweeted that the Rock will make a great Shao Kahn.

Boon’s tweet created much confusion as many fans and publications assumed that Johnson was involved with the Call of Duty film. While last year’s Mortal Kombat was a hit in HBO Max’s streaming, Activision’s Call of Duty movie project was delayed indefinitely in 2020 and has been in the pre-production phase since 2015.

On January 26, Deadline reported that New Line had greenlighted a Mortal Kombat sequel to the 2021 movie. The studio reportedly roped in Marvel’s Moon Knight screenwriter Jeremy Slater to pen the project.

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Fans react to Dwayne Johnson’s rumored casting in Mortal Kombat 2

After Ed Boone pegged Dwayne Johnson as the best choice to portray the Mortal Kombat villain Shao Kahn, numerous fans came up with their own casting choices for the actor.

While many iterated that the Rock would be a great Kotal Kahn or Tremor from the video game series, few tweets also fancast other actors in roles for the upcoming sequel.

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Dwayne Johnson’s video game movie project - Mortal Kombat or Call of Duty?

In the interview, the Rock only mentioned his involvement with a video game-based movie which sparked much speculation about the project. This unconfirmed project would be the third video game movie that the actor is involved with following his appearance in 2005’s Doom and 2018’s Rampage, which was a moderate success with over $400 million gross worldwide box office earnings.

Meanwhile, Giant Freakin Robot claimed to have confirmed from their trusted insider that the secret project will be a Call of Duty movie.

Previously, Activision roped in Stefano Sollima to helm the project while it was written by Scott Silver (of 2019’s Joker fame) and Solima. In 2020, the director, known for his works like Sicario: Day of the Soldado and Without Remorse, revealed that the movie was no longer “the industrial priority” for Activision.

However, with the recent acquisition of Activision by Microsoft for almost $69 billion, it is plausible that Dwayne Johnson is back in talks to be cast as the lead in the upcoming warfare film. While it is likely that the Rock’s Seven Bucks Productions will be involved, it is unknown if Solima and Silver will be returning to the project.