Chris Hemsworth Will Play Hulk Hogan In WWE Legend's Biopic

Could Bradley Cooper be playing Vince McMahon?

Feb 21, 2019 February 21st, 2019

Hulkamania is about to run wild on Hollywood.

Hangover director Todd Phillips - who is currently making The Joker - is set to team up with producers Bradley Cooper and Eric Bischoff to tell the story of Hulk Hogan, with Chris Hemsworth set to play the superstar himself.

It looks likely to follow fellow biopics Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (Ted Bundy) and The Dirt (Motley Crue) onto Netflix, with the deal being worked on currently.

The news - which comes courtesy of THR - suggests that we won't be getting a complete biopic of Terry Bollea's entire life. Instead, the film will focus on his rise to stardom as an origin story of the Hulkster and Hulkamania, brother. Naturally, Hogan himself will be working as a consultant on the film, which makes it particularly unlikely that we'll see anything too caustic. So maybe don't expect to see anything about the sex tape scandal and subsequent lawsuit against Gawker, as much as that would make a hell of an American Crime Story style film.

It's interesting that Cooper is involved as a producer, because this isn't the first WWE biopic he's been attached to. He's still quietly set to play Vince McMahon in Pandemonium, which WWE Studios were involved with. That project has run a little dry, though Cooper was said to have received a third draft of the script early in 2018 and ThatHashtagShow reported a character breakdown that included the likes of Vince McMahon Snr, Ted Turner and Gorilla Monsoon.

That project would also include a young Hulk Hogan, which is another interesting parallel with this project. Could it be that Cooper is actually going to play Vince McMahon in this biopic too? He'd be great casting (even if Eric Roberts would be even better for an older Vince) and it makes sense that there could be overlap. From WWE Studios' point of view, that crossover would be a strong marketing opportunity (the same way Netflix ingeniously released The Ted Bundy Tapes as a precursor to Extremely Wicked...)

If it's not happening, it really ought to be.

Hemsworth has actually already been linked to playing a WWE superstar by this very website when we ran our fantasy casting of the Montreal Screwjob movie. And he has another link to WWE, since he ultimately allegedly took the role of Thor in the MCU from Triple H, who was linked to it for years (without ever being seriously considered, apparently). He's a slightly left-field choice for Hogan, but he's talented and if he can nail the voice and the presence, he'll be good.

What do you think of this news?