According to producer Hiram Garcia, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson won't return for San Andreas 2 or Rampage 2. Johnson, one of the most in-demand actors in the world, led the two films in 2015 and 2018, further establishing him as a leading man in large-scale disaster movies. Johnson's career also features The Fast and the Furious and Jumanji franchises, both of which are expected to feature the return of the wrestler turned actor.
San Andreas follows Johnson's character who must rescue the citizens of Los Angles and San Fransico after an earthquake along the titular fault that devastates the cities. Rampage follows Johnson as he teams up with a gorilla of enormous size to protect the city of Chicago from two other large-scale animals. While a sequel to Rampage is yet to be confirmed, San Andreas 2 has been in talks for some time, with Johnson citing scheduling conflicts as the reason for the stalled production.
In an interview with Collider, Garcia talks about Johnson's busy schedule, and how the actors must pick and choose which movies he wants to make follow-ups for due to limited time. He goes on to say that Johnson only wants to commit to franchises he's passionate about, such as the aforementioned Fast and the Furious and Jumanji films. He cites how most films Johnson makes have box office appeal, usually leading to talks of a sequel, whether Johnson wants to commit to the project long term or not. Read Garcia's full quote below:
“It's funny that you say that, and the truth is people always ask because we're in a very fortunate situation where our partners always want a sequel to everything, right? It's a matter of our slate and the stories we want to tell. We're very calculating in what we want to tell, but, look, if our studio partners had their ways, they want a Journey 2: Mysterious Island sequel, they want a San Andreas sequel, they want a Rampage sequel. It's like all of those movies, the studio was clamoring for a sequel, but we felt collectively, 'Look, we told a great version of the story. Now, we want to go to tell another story somewhere else.' But it is a very funny thing where if he did the sequel for everything that there was a request for a sequel, he would literally never not be working. He's just been very selective about what he chooses to come back for sequels. So the Fast Universe was one of those, obviously Jumanji. We have very big plans, obviously, for the DC Universe, if the fans perceive the way we want. We have a lot of stories planned for that. But it is a challenge of balancing, 'Okay, what are the sequels we're going to do,' because we've been very fortunate that the majority of the projects we've done, there's been a request for sequel, and his availability has always been the thing that made it a challenge.”
Johnson has recently starred in Red Notice, which quickly became Netflix's biggest film to date, with over 364 million watch hours in total. This, along with the success of Jungle Cruise shows Johnson's popularity with audiences, popularity that leads to sequels being demanded of all his films. Johnson is slated in 2022 to appear in Black Adam based on the character from DC Comics, reuniting with Jungle Cruise director Jaume Collet-Serra for the project.
Johnson is one of the most recognizable actors in the world given his preference for highly marketable big-budget action and disaster movies. Johnson long ago figured out the types of movies he's best at making and seems content to ride that train for years to come, but with so much of a good thing, it's clear the actor needs to prioritize projects he really believes in. With Black Adam and the Christmas movie Red One on the way, fans will have no shortage of the actor's charisma and screen presence, even if San Andreas 2 and Rampage 2 never get made.
Source: Collider