Dwayne Johnson shares an emotional salute to comic book legend Stan Lee on social media. The former wrestler burst onto the scene with the 2001 film, The Mummy Returns, which kickstarted his acting career. Needless to say, The Rock’s career in Hollywood has taken off since then, with him eventually beating Robert Downey Jr. to become the highest-paid actor in 2016, thanks to movies such as Moana and Central Intelligence, as well as his ongoing HBO series Ballers.
Johnson has plenty of projects on his plate at the moment - including a Big Trouble in Little China remake, Disney’s Jungle Cruise adaptation, and the upcoming Fast & Furious spinoff movie starring him and Jason Statham - with Jake Kasdan’s Jumanji sequel/reboot, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, being the current hot topic. The actor was on-deck at Stan Lee’s Los Angeles Comic-Con this past weekend promoting the upcoming Jumanji film, and afterward, he met privately with Lee and thanked the former Marvel Comics editor for helping guide him throughout his career.
A photo was taken of Johnson and Lee - famously known for shepherding Marvel Comics during its early years and for co-creating iconic characters such as Iron Man, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four, among countless others - during their meeting at LACC 2017, and the actor has since posted it on Instagram. What’s more, Johnson thanked Lee for welcoming him with open arms when he first arrived in Hollywood all those years ago, saying that he has taken the comic book legend’s advice for being imaginative and having lots of fun. Take a look:
This man. This legend. When I first broke into Hollywood 17yrs ago, Stan Lee (iconic co creator of Spider Man, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Dr Strange etc) welcomed me with open arms. Always offering sage advice to help build my career. Be imaginative, set no limits.. have fun, he said. Years had gone by, but at Stan’s #LAComicCon I had the opportunity to hug him again and say thank you. I was also truly moved yesterday by his words regarding the career I’ve been fortunate enough to build. Much more to accomplish. Cheers my friend to imagination, no limits and fun. Next time tequila’s on me! Your Black Adam⚡️? (@hhgarcia41 ?) A post shared by therock (@therock) on Oct 29, 2017 at 4:06pm PDT
Although Stan Lee has long retired from the comic book industry, that doesn’t mean he’s not involved with Hollywood in at least some capacity. While he doesn’t have as many projects as Johnson does, Lee still finds time to make his fan-favorite cameos in Marvel Studios’ movies - and he will continue doing so for as long as he can. Plus, he still has LACC to run every year.
What’s interesting about Johnson’s caption, though, is that he closes out his caption with “Your Black Adam.” For those that don’t know, Teth Adam, aka Black Adam, is one of DC Comics’ supervillains (not Marvel Comics), and he’s one of Shazam’s (formerly known as Captain Marvel) archenemies. Johnson has been attached to the role of Black Adam since 2014, and the actor will be receiving his own movie set within Warner Bros. DC cinematic universe (unofficially known as the DCEU) before eventually going toe-to-toe with Zachary Levi’s Shazam - but it’s unclear when that ultimate showdown will happen.
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Source: Dwayne Johnson
