By the time Dwayne Johnson reached Hollywood, Tom Cruise was its biggest star. The 60-year-old Cruise regularly churned out big numbers at the box office and raked in fat checks. Over two decades later, Johnson rules the roost. From just having seven dollars in the bank, the 51-year-old wrestler-turned-actor has a net worth of $800 million, $200 million more than Cruise.

While Johnson gets to pick his projects and call the shots now, it wasn’t always the case with him. He lost out on a dream role in 2012 to The Mission Impossible star. That movie went on to collect $218 million at the box office. Meanwhile, eleven years later, The Rock had a message for his senior colleague.

What was the role that Tom Cruise won over Dwayne Johnson?

Both Johnson and Cruise have been a part of some iconic action movies. After all, they have carved out a career out of doing such roles. In 2012, Cruise starred in ‘Jack Reacher’, playing the titular character based on Lee Child’s book “One Shot”. He even reprised the role in the 2016 sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.

However, years later, Johnson revealed that he was interested in playing the former military police officer. He also admitted receiving a phone call from people who told him he was in the mix to play the character. “Fortunately, for me, there aren’t a lot of guys at all who look like me. So, all of my roles, from the beginning of my career, I’ve been a lucky son of a b***h that they’ve been created and designed for me – except Jack Reacher,” he shared in a video message.

“I got the call saying ‘Hey, you didn’t get the role’ Look, I didn’t even know if I had a shot for it, but the people around me at that time made me think that I did. I felt like I did, I felt like ‘Why not me?'” he said, adding, “Tom was the biggest movie star in the world, and I was not.” The actor made the revelation during a live Facebook Q&A in 2020.

Recently, Cruise posted a video on Twitter, talking about the upcoming sequel of his Mission Impossible series. He captioned the post: “We’ve done car chases in Mission: Impossible movies before. But nothing like this one.” Johnson was one among the thousands who commented. The Black Adam raised a toast.

Nevertheless, Johnson is a part of other successful franchises with his stature these days. Moreover, The People’s Champ made a major announcement regarding the future of his iconic role in the Fast franchise.

Dwayne Johnson comes clean on the future of Luke Hobbs

The Fast and Furious franchise is filled with memorable characters. While several have bid adieu, many have continued to be a part of the films. If Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto is one of the most memorable characters from the franchise, Dwayne Johnson’s Luke Hobbs is arguably in the same bracket. The federal agent was part of Fast films five to eight.

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Differences with the cast made Johnson quit the franchise, and he wasn’t in F9, the ninth Fast film. But he made a comeback in FX, which hit screens in May 2023. Though his screen time was limited to the post-credit scene, Johnson revealed that he’s going to be back for the 11th film. He will take on Dante Reyes, the villain played by Jason Momoa.

The Great One also vowed to have a showdown with Momoa that’ll resemble the legendary clash between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, during his heydays in the WWE. But fans will have to wait for the movie to release for that to happen. For now, tell us what you make of The Rock’s message to Tom Cruise. Do you think he would have played Jack Reacher better? Let us know in the comments.

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