Dwayne Johnson Wants Jeffrey Dean Morgan to Play Lobo

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Dwayne Johnson Endorses Jeffrey Dean Morgan for DC's Lobo Movie

By Sandy Schaefer

Published Sep 3, 2018

Dwayne Johnson endorses Jeffrey Dean Morgan in his bid to play DC's Lobo - a comic book movie role that The Rock was once lined up for.

Dwayne Johnson has endorsed Jeffrey Dean Morgan to play DC's Lobo on the big screen. The Rock actually has a history with the role that goes back to 2012 - when the wrestler-turned actor was in talks to star in a Lobo movie for Warner Bros. and DC, with Johnson's Journey 2: The Mysterious Island director Brad Peyton calling the shots from his own script.

Peyton's Lobo movie ultimately fell apart and the filmmaker later reunited with Johnson on the 2015 earthquake disaster thriller San Andreas, instead. The pair worked together for a third time on this year's Rampage, an adaptation of the popular video game property that starred Johnson as a primatologist who attempts to save his friend - a rare albino gorilla who is mutated into a giant monster by a genetic experiment gone wrong - with the help of a scientist (Naomie Harris) and a U.S. government agent played by Morgan.

During his recent appearance at Walker Stalker Con, Morgan expressed a desire to play Lobo in a movie, calling the DC antihero a "badass". Word of this soon reached Johnson, who responded with an affirmative "Hell yes" to the idea on his Twitter account - giving his "official" endorsement to Morgan for the role, in the process.

Johnson is currently attached to star in DC's Black Adam solo movie, which he will also be producing. The mega-star may hold some actual sway on the matter of casting Lobo for that same reason and, at the very least, could put in a good word for his Rampage costar Morgan with the top brass at WB/DC. That's assuming they don't mind Morgan playing Lobo after he cameoed as Thomas Wayne in Batman V Superman - a role that Morgan once hoped to reprise in a Flashpoint movie that, by the look of things, may no longer be happening.

What's less clear, however, is whether a Lobo movie is part of WB and DC's current game plan. The studios offered the film to Michael Bay earlier this year, but all concerned parties decided to pass until Lobo's budget can be cut down from an estimated $200 million. WB is moving forward with a Joker origin movie (starring Joaquin Phoenix) that isn't part of its DC cinematic universe, along with Suicide Squad spinoff Birds of Prey (featuring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn) and Black Adam in the meantime, so it clearly isn't giving up on movies featuring DC antiheroes/villains like Lobo altogether.

As for Morgan: he's as logical a choice for the role as most anyone, given the knack he's shown for playing foul-mouthed and violent, yet charismatic, characters in the vein of Lobo - namely, as Negan on The Walking Dead and Lobo's fellow cigar-chomper The Comedian in Zack Snyder's Watchmen movie. Who knows, with The Rock in his corner, Morgan may get to fulfill his wish of playing the intergalactic bounty hunter yet.