In a casting dilemma that’s sure to have handbags at dawn, we’re hearing that both Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson are under consideration to play Black Bolt in the MCU’s second try at the Inhumans.
As we’ve previously told you, Vin Diesel is currently the top choice for the role, but if he passes, we’ve been informed that Dwayne Johnson could be the studio’s second pick. That’s a development that’s unlikely to make The Rock happy, though, as the pair have famously feuded on the set of the Fast & Furious movies.
The dispute arose when Hobbs & Shaw was first announced, much to the chagrin of Vin Diesel who considers Fast & Furious to be his baby. We then saw a series of extremely unbecoming comments about “family” and “candy ass” stars hellbent on steering the Fast franchise in the wrong direction. As a result, Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto and Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) haven’t been seen together on screen since.
There’s been some indication that they’ve made up, but Johnson knowing that he’s playing second fiddle to Diesel is sure to spark things up again. In any case, given that this intel comes to us from the same sources who first told us Marvel was rebooting the Inhumans way back in June, before anyone else had reported on it, and then that at least a few of them would show up in Ms. Marvel, which has since been confirmed, we have no reason to doubt it.
All that being said, it’s important to remember that Johnson is set to (finally) play Black Adam, with the shoot commencing in mid-2020, so he may not have time for a role in the MCU even if Marvel wants him. After all, there aren’t that many actors who can star in an MCU and DCEU project at around the same time, with most settling for one or the other for a couple of years.
Regardless of who they go with though – Diesel, Johnson or someone else entirely, as there are other names on the list, too – it appears that Marvel Studios are efficiently pretending their last attempt at the Inhumans never happened. So far, it’s the only outright failure from them (though I guess Iron Fist comes close) and given that almost nobody watched it, it should be easy to write it off as an expensive footnote in the company’s history.