Dwayne Johnson arrives at the screening of "Hercules" in June 2014 in Sydney, Australia.

Story highlights

Johnson appeared to confirm his participation in the DC franchise

He said there's an announcement coming soon

Warner Bros. had no official comment

EW.com  — 

Dwayne Johnson has long been rumored to play a character in Warner Bros’ rapidly expanding DC movie universe.

In a surprising revelation happening days before the yearly Casting Revelation Geek Orgy known as Comic-Con, Johnson appeared to confirm his participation in the DC franchise. “DC and I have been talking for a couple of years now,” said the Hercules star, clearly excited to talk about anything besides Hercules. “There’s a character out there that we’re gonna announce really soon, that I’m gonna play.”

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“Announce really soon” could mean “at Comic-Con” or it could mean “in the next year” or it could mean “actually never.” But what’s even more interesting is that Johnson appeared to confirm specifically which character he’d be playing. After first explaining that he would not be playing Green Lantern–even though he badly wanted to incarnate the John Stewart version of the emerald superhero–Johnson notes that he’s playing someone with “the power of Superman.” He concludes: “Just say the word. That’s all I’m gonna say.”

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“Power of Superman” is a clue; so is “just say the word.”

As comic book fans know, the character originally known as Captain Marvel essentially has Superman-level abilities–abilities that are activated when he says the word “Shazam!” So did the Rock just offer a clear tease that he’ll be donning some version of Captain Marvel’s red-and-yellow outfit? If so, it’s likely that the film will feature some kind of Big twist: In the original comics, Captain Marvel is the grown-up alter ego of young Billy Batson. So the search is on for someone who can believably play a younger version of Dwayne Johnson.

Warner Bros. had no official comment when contacted by EW, although it’s worth pointing out that there is a rumored Shazam movie on the horizon for 2016. Watch Johnson in the video below, inadvertently providing us with further proof that Fast & Furious has become the Nexus of All Action Movie Franchises, just like the M’Kraan Crystal, or whatever DC’s version of the M’Kraan Crystal is.

See the original story at EW.com.