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News broke earlier this week that Chris Hemsworth will play Hulk Hogan in a new Netflix biopic. Given the quality of work Netflix has put out in recent years, and the star power of Hemsworth alone, the project feels as though it has a lot of potential to entertain not only wrestling fans but a broader audience that may not watch wrestling now, but nonetheless followed Hogan in his heyday.
With Hemsworth in place, the question becomes who might be cast alongside him? This article considers some of the major parts we would expect for a picture about The Hulkster’s life, and which Hollywood actors or actresses might be compelling fits for those different roles.
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Full disclosure, this article is written from a speculative viewpoint, without knowledge as to individual talents’ filming schedules or if the budget for this project would allow for them to be cast. Consider this less of a set of predictions and more of a template for the kind of cast that could work really well for this project.
12. Jeremy Piven as Vince McMahon
Vince McMahon is nothing if not an aggressive businessman. He was instrumental in making Hulk Hogan a household name and, by extension, elevating WWE to a truly international brand based on his ruthless approach to business and his willingness to go out on a limb as a promoter.
Moreover, WWE could use someone with an edge for this part, to emulate McMahon’s more heated exchanges with the talent he hired over the years—not least of all including Hogan himself, particularly during the steroid trial or after The Hulkster signed with the competition in WCW.
Jeremy Piven’s work, particularly in his role as Ari Gold in Entourage, has demonstrated a lot of the aggression and bravado needed to successfully play McMahon. As long as he doesn’t hold up the production of the Hogan biopic with errant references to “Summerfest” he would be a terrific cast member for this project.
11. Adam Sandler as Brutus The Barber Beefcake
One of the key roles to fill in a Hulk Hogan biopic has to be that of Brutus The Barber Beefcake, The Hulkster’s real-life close friend who he came up with, and who enjoyed so many opportunities in WWE and WCW based on his friendship with Hogan.
There’s a fair argument that the part should be played with a comedic bent given that many from inside the wrestling business tend to talk down about Beefcake as someone who wasn’t particularly talented and mooched off of his association with Hogan.
Adam Sandler could be an ideal fit for this role, given that he has proven his ideal to play physical roles, and that this is a case where fans could not take him entirely seriously in a dramatic role, and it would actually play to his (and the film’s) advantage.
On top of all of that, Sandler is an unabashed wrestling fan and already has a working relationship with Netflix, which could conceivably make this an easy deal to make.
10. Chris Evans as Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff
While Hulk Hogan may have ultimately had more memorable rivals, Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff was a very important one for coming early in the Hulkamania run and being half of the heel team that challenged Hogan at the first WrestleMania.
All that, and there’s the fact that Orndorff looked like a legitimate rival for Hogan’s incomparable musculature with his own herculean physique (and had the chops in the ring to help give The Hulkster some good matches).
Chris Evans has already worked with Chris Hemsworth in the Avengers franchise, playing Captain America and Thor, respectively.
Moreover, Evans is among the small handful of A-listers who could match up well posing bare-chested alongside Hemsworth. Sure, it’s a longshot that Netflix can land two actors of this stature for a project like this, but while we’re assembling a dream cast at this point, why not go there?
9. Sean William Scott as Roddy Piper
When fans try to characterize the mid-1980s to early 1990s period in WWE history, when Hulkamania ran wild, one of the first places they’ll typically go is the muscled up super humans of the era.
A number of top stars were guys theorized to be (and often enough, in reality) using steroids to achieve their tremendous muscle mass. Roddy Piper is one of the truest icons from that era who didn’t look that part.
Sure, he was big and strong by any conventional standards, but he didn’t have the same level of bulging biceps as other top names of the day. Instead, his biggest claim to fame was his mouth. He was skilled talker, and particularly as a heel during this period, he played an optimal early foil for Hogan for his over the top insults on the mic.
Sean William Scott doesn’t have the look of a wrestler, but if he can bulk up even a little, he’d come into reasonable enough proportion with Chris Hemsorth to play Piper against his Hogan. More importantly, the kind of over the top personality he showed in roles like Stiffler from the American Pie movies would do Piper justice in this film.
8. Elizabeth Lail as Linda Hogan
While we have to assume that a Hulk Hogan biopic will focus on his career in professional wrestling, it seems fair to assume we’ll get at least a little of his personal life sprinkled in, too.
If we strip down Terry Bollea’s life to its essentials, one of the first non-wrestling roles that would have to be cast is that of Linda Hogan. The two got married only shortly before The Hulkster exploded into full-fledged superstar status as WWE Champion, and remained hitched through his original WWE run, his time with WCW best remembered before the New World Order run, and even Hogan’s nostalgia run, back with WWE in the aftermath.
Elizabeth Lail has been a working actress for several years, but most recently rose to national prominence for playing the female lead in the first season of You, which originally aired on Lifetime, but has since exploded in popularity on Netflix.
She connected with viewers as not just a pretty face, but an actress who combined a realistic edge with a bit of girl next door vibe. She’d play nicely in this supporting role for the Hogan biopic, and depending if the story extends to through their divorce, her work in You also demonstrated her ability to sell anger nicely.
7. Ed O’Neill as Verne Gagne
Verne Gagne plays a deceptively important role in Hulk Hogan’s story. Gagne employed Hogan for the AWA run that preceded his Hulkamania push in WWE, and many attribute Hogan’s most successful persona and mannerisms more to Gagne’s mind for wrestling than Vince McMahon’s creative contributions.
Moreover, Gagne was a key business rival in the aftermath, who legend has it went so far as to offer The Iron Sheik money to legitimately break Hogan’s leg to kill his momentum in WWE.
Gagne is best remembered as a traditionalist and elder statesman of the wrestling business and that’s a gravitas that Ed O’Neill could tap into well. Putting aside his comedic work in Married… With Children, his character on Modern Family exhibits more of the curmudgeonly tendencies to successfully portray Gagne, not to mention that O’Neill has proven his more dramatic chops in roles like his recurring part on The West Wing.
6. Chris Pratt as Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Hacksaw Jim Duggan isn’t necessarily an integral player in the Hulk Hogan story, and so it’s far from a foregone conclusion Netflix would cast an A-lister in that role, or even bother to cast it at all.
Nonetheless, he was an iconic star from the original Hulkamania run in particular, and we will in all likelihood see a number of guys like him represented in the film. Duggan is particularly worth considering as some pundits have suggested he may have been up for the face of WWE role had Hogan not signed with WWE (a point that has never been confirmed, and is up for debate to be sure).
When it comes to casting Hacksaw, Chris Pratt would be an ideal fit. He’s got the big body and a passing resemblance to Duggan. More so, Pratt’s work on Parks and Recreation, in particular, revealed his ability and willingness to play the shameless goofball, which with some slight tweaks could fit very nicely in playing Duggan.
5. Jason Momoa as Superfly Jimmy Snuka
Fans tend to forget that Jimmy Snuka was one of WWE’s tip-top stars during the original national expansion, combining his aerial talent with a killer physique and a unique look.
Snuka was properly featured as a main eventer opposite Bob Backlund in the era immediately preceding the Hulkamania run. He looked to play a key supporting role moving forward, but all indications are that his push and WWE-recognized legacy got derailed by his personal life—most notably his purported role in the death of his girlfriend in a hotel room.
Jason Momoa, best known for his work as the leading man in Aquaman is probably too big of a name for Netflix to secure for this supporting role, besides which he would face the unusual predicament of actually having an even more imposing physique than the wrestler he would be playing.
Nonetheless, his raw physicality and passing resemblance to Snuka could make him a very interesting choice for this role.
4. Anna Kendrick as Miss Elizabeth
Randy Savage would be one of the major figures to be cast for a picture focused on Hulk Hogan’s wrestling career. There’s no portraying the story of Savage and Hogan without also addressing Miss Elizabeth, Savage’s real-life wife and, arguably through no fault of her own, a source of drama and jealousies between two of wrestling’s biggest icons both on screen and off.
Elizabeth could only be played by a beautiful woman, and all the better an actress who can embody the same it factor that made Elizabeth so well loved by wrestling fans of the 1980s, despite not actually doing all that much on screen.
Anna Kendrick is probably overqualified for the Elizabeth role as a bona fide leading lady in her own right. Nonetheless, she’d have the right look and charm for the part, not to mention that her diminutive size would nicely underscore the epic proportions of the men surrounding her on screen.
3. The Big Show as Andre the Giant
While modern-day special effects can go a long way toward portraying people as much bigger or smaller than they actually are, it’s nonetheless a tough sell for anyone to capture the aura of a real-life giant, and especially to cast a role like Andre the Giant, and have the actor appear at scale to be so much bigger than someone like Chris Hemsworth, the way Andre dwarfed Hulk Hogan.
In the end, a choice like The Big Show would be the natural fit for this spot for having the appropriate size, not to mention the wrestling lineage that he in so many ways inherited from Andre. Show was originally hinted at being Andre’s son in WCW and represents a similar vibe of a genuine giant who used his size to build a long career as a spectacle in the wrestling business.
More practical concerns aside, Show is one of the few people wrestling fans would readily accept in this important role.
2. Steve Carell as Bobby Heenan
There are a lot of guys who could be in the conversation for Hulk Hogan’s greatest rival in professional wrestling.
We could consider Andre the Giant for his immense size, The Iron Sheik for representing the evil heel foreigner characters of his day and being the first man to lose a world title to Hogan, Randy Savage for sheer heat, Ric Flair for the debate of their time about who was the best in the business, or Sting for their iconic WCW storyline.
One guy who tends to get overlooked in these conversations is Bobby Heenan, who was never a physical rival for Hogan but was the heel mastermind manager behind so many of Hogan’s biggest rivalries in WWE (not to mention an antagonist from the broadcast table in WWE and WCW, to boot).
For this role, we’d need to see someone with a gift for irreverent gab. Channeling his most obnoxious work from The Office, Steve Carell could be a tremendous fit for this part, projecting Heenan’s brilliant heel swagger.
1. Rusev as Nikolai Volkoff
There will be major roles in the Hulk Hogan biopic that would be best played by serious actors and actresses with experience on movie sets.
There will also be wrestling scenes which probably won’t require distinguished acting chops, but might actually benefit more from real wrestling experience as they’re covered in montage, or are more of a backdrop than a featured moment.
For these parts, drafting actual pro wrestlers—and particularly ones who are eager to be involved—could be the best choice for the filmmakers.
On the same day that Chris Hemsworth was announced to play Hulk Hogan in this project, Rusev started his social media campaign for a part in the film. The Bulgarian Brute doesn’t have much business in a leading role, but playing a representative big man heel foreigner like Nikolai Volkoff opposite Hogan’s all-American hero gimmick could make a lot of sense, particularly given the Russian tie ins to the Rusev character via Lana.
