Oh. My. Demigod. The first photo of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in “Hercules: The Thracian Wars” hit the internet last night, and it is a beautiful thing to behold.
In a post on Twitter, Johnson did the honors of releasing the exclusive first look at his star turn as this summer’s fiercest ancient Greek superhero. The photo from “Hercules” shows its titular strongman in full-on battle mode, ready to tear apart some unseen foe.
Of course, this isn’t the first time The Rock has played a figure straight out of ancient myth. How does his take on Hercules stack up against those other characters? Let’s take a look.
Fierce: The Scorpion King
With six pack abs and an impenetrable exoskeleton, Johnson’s appearance as a half-man, half-insect at the tail end of “The Mummy Returns” was terrifying — but also, unfortunately, kind of hilarious, since the filmmakers apparently ran out of time to do a motion-capture performance with the actor, and instead decided to use an incredibly silly computer-generated version of The Rock’s face superimposed on the scorpion body.
They later got it right for the “Scorpion King” solo feature, just dressing The Rock up in —: well, basically just a loincloth.
Fiercer: Hercules
The body armor! The bulging biceps! The teeny, tiny leather loincloth! Oh yes, there’s much to love about The Rock in our first peek at him as Hercules. But with the picture very inconveniently cropped high up on its hero’s upper thigh, it’s impossible to see Herc’s footwear — which, as we all know, can make or break your whole look.
Fiercest: The Tooth Fairy
When it comes to the actor’s spate of mythological roles, it’s his turn as the Tooth Fairy that wins everything. Because no matter how fierce his war face, and no matter how sharp his scorpion claws, The Rock has never been more intimidating than in this film: where he pranced across the screen decked out in a pair of shimmery wings and a pretty pink tutu.
“Hercules,” starring The Rock, hits theaters July 25.
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