DCEU: Is John Cena Going To Play Shazam!?
Cena vs The Rock in a DC movie? Bring it.
The days of John Cena strutting around a WWE ring might be slowing down, but the man whose broad shoulders have propped up ratings for some time now has his eyes on another prize. He's set to follow The Rock to become a legitimate movie mega-star, turning his popularity among younger wrestling fans into box office bankability.
He's already got the Bumblebee movie coming, and now he's one of the names supposedly leading the pack in consideration for Warner Bros' upcoming Shazam stand-alone. It's pretty safe to say that project has just got immediately more interesting thanks to his possible involvement.
Cena is apparently on a shortlist also including Joshua Sasse, and now that the script is complete and principal photography has been set for early 2018, we can probably expect a confirmation sooner rather than later. Whichever of the actors were chosen would be playing Shazam!, with Billy Batson played by another actor entirely.
The rumour comes courtesy of That Hashtag Show, who say that Cena and Sasse lead the chase, while an unidentified third candidate dropped out of contention. And frankly, casting Cena would be inspired: he's got the physique (which would be particularly useful to juxtapose him with the young, scrawny actor playing Billy), he's very good with comedy, and it would set up a clash of charismatic leads when Shazam meets The Rock's Black Adam (whether it's in this movie or the Black Adam stand-alone).
It might only be a rumour at this stage, but that doesn't mean it's not one you should probably hope comes off.