The lovable Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has starred in several big movie franchises, but Jungle Cruise can become the first that truly belongs to him. Johnson is currently one of the biggest movie stars in the world, a fate most didn't really see coming back in the early days of his acting career. While Johnson would play the lead in action films like The Scorpion King and The Rundown, he also starred in duds like Doom and Southland Tales, and some doubted whether The Rock would ascend to the next level.
Thankfully, The Rock's rise through the ranks of WWE had taught him how to persevere past adversity, as it took several years for the former Rocky Maivia — a name partially referencing his father Rocky Johnson — to evolve into The Rock, one of the most successful professional wrestlers of all time. It was the same in Hollywood, with Johnson having to toil for a while before his talents truly began to be recognized, and he took off with the masses just as much as he had wrestling fans.
While Johnson has appeared in several massive properties in the movie world to date, and will soon enter the DC realm as Black Adam, he's never really had a franchise designed for him from the ground up. Typically, Johnson appears in movie franchises that are already established and therefore are most associated with the original's actors. Disney's Jungle Cruise, a critical and commercial success story, may well become that for Johnson, with the small caveat that he'll be sharing the spotlight with co-star Emily Blunt.
Funnily enough, The Rock's first big movie role came as part of an existing franchise, playing The Scorpion King — who's about to get a reboot — in The Mummy Returns. Hollywood clearly saw the potential for Johnson to lead his own franchise, attempting to spinoff the character, but with only one theatrical movie coming out of that. In more recent times, many credit The Rock's addition to the cast with being part of the reason the Fast and the Furious franchise improved so much part-way through the series, as his Luke Hobbs proved a popular and badass hero/villain. Still, once Johnson ended up on the wrong side of Vin Diesel, it became abundantly clear that Fast and Furious isn't Johnson's franchise.
Then there's Jumanji, which The Rock successfully rejuvenated as both producer and star, but it's likely that franchise will never truly escape the shadow of the late Robin Williams and his leading role in the original 1995 film. While Jungle Cruise is based on a Disney ride, it's new to the big screen, and as its ending pretty clearly sets up further adventures starring Johnson's Frank and Blunt's Lily, sequels could allow the former WWE champion an opportunity to build a movie franchise that's truly his. He could probably even continue if Blunt eventually wants to leave, as there's no way Frank didn't have other notable events going on around him during his 100s of years tied to the edge of the Amazon.