Actor Dwayne Johnson may have had a major impact on the Hollywood industry, but that doesn't mean that everyone has always gone his way.
Dwayne Johnson has been in the limelight the last couple of weeks for a reason that many would not have expected. Dwayne The Rock Johnson, alongside his business partner Dani Garcia and several other defendants, has been named in a $3 billion lawsuit by Trenesha Biggers (also known by her ring name Rhaka Khan) alleging kidnapping.
The lawsuit, which just moved forward in court, alleges that Johnson and Garcia hired three men to forcibly remove Biggers from her Tampa home. From there, the former wrestler says she was taken to a Miami hotel and was physically and emotionally abused. She also says she was threatened by Johnson and Garcia. While neither of the two has spoken publicly, a joint statement from their legal team shared that they denied any wrongdoing and look forward to clearing their names in court.
Other defendants in the Dwayne Johnson lawsuit include The State of Texas, The El Paso Child Protective Services, The Las Cruces, New Mexico Police Department, The NYPD, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, New York ACS, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc., Shirley Police Department, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Suffolk County NY, Bank of America, Home Depot, and even the FBI.
Amid the lawsuit, multiple reports have indicated that Dwayne Johnson is no longer being considered for a role in Pirates of the Caribbean, but his relationship with Disney is still strong, as The Rock will star in the live-action Moana movie, which is set to begin filming this October.
Of course, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise wasn't the only franchise to cut ties with Johnson in his acting career, and this is one that you may not know about. According to a recent report, in the Transformers series in 2010, The Rock took on the iconic character of Cliffjumper. Though his portrayal of the character was good, he was cut after the pilot episode.
Even though Michael Bay had the opportunity to bring Johnson back into the franchise with Transformers: Age Of Extinction (2014) just a few years later, the deal ultimately fell through and the role ended up going to Mark Wahlberg. The movie ended up bringing in a massive $1.104 billion at the box office with a budget of $210 million.
It's interesting to look back and think about what would've happened in Johnson hadn't been cut from the franchise. Could the next movie, Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), have been a bigger success at the box office than the abysmal $605.4 million that the fifth installment brought in?
It's also interesting to think about what projects Dwayne Johnson might have turned down had he not been cut from the Transformers franchise. Would he still have been in Moana (2016)? Would he have taken on the role in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) with friend Kevin Hart? It's certainly fun to think about.
Did you know this fact about Dwayne Johnson? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments!