Dwayne Johnson's New Movie Starts Filming Just A Few Days After Dad's Death

Dwayne Johnson in Hobbs & Shaw

It's been a roller coaster of a week for Dwayne Johnson. Last week, Johnson's father, retired professional wrestler Rocky Johnson, passed away unexpectedly. While The Rock remained unsurprisingly quiet on social media for a few days, he did eventually post a loving tribute to his father. Today, Rocky Johnson is being laid to rest, and Johnson will be giving the eulogy, but it appears as though the actor who, seems to take few days off, will be moving right back into his next project, as the Netflix movie Red Notice began production today.

The Rock posted this day one image on Instagram showing that Red Notice has officially begun filming. The movie co-stars Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds and will see the trio chasing after international criminals. With a cast like that, and the budget that goes along with it, Red Notice may end up being the biggest movie Netflix has ever produced. Check out the first image from the set below.

A photo posted by on

While Dwayne Johnson shared this image to his Instagram, it seems unlikely that he is actually on the set at this moment. The Rock had posted to Instagram yesterday that his father's funeral was set for today, and his priorities are absolutely in the right place, he's there now. Having said that, he'll likely be heading out to the set of Red Notice fairly soon. There likely isn't a lot of the movie that can be shot without Johnson, though the shooting schedule may have received an adjustment to try and do as much without him up front, so that he can take some personal time.

When Dwayne Johnson was living his life as The Rock, he worked on a WWE schedule that had him on the road most of the year, and it seems that he really has kept up a similar schedule since shifting to Hollywood. He appears to frequently be leaving one film set in order to get to the next one. He always has several projects that he's attached to waiting in the wings after he finishes whatever he's currently working on.

This often leaves many questions regarding when, or even if, some of these films will ever happen. The Rock has been signed to play Black Adam since before there was ever a Shazam!, and yet only now does it appear we're actually close to seeing that film happen. The same has been the case with Red Notice, which has been a project Johnson has been involved with for a while, but is finally moving forward after being picked up from Universal by Netflix.

While the loss of his father has certainly had a strong impact on Dwayne Johnson, the outpouring of support from fans has also meant a lot to him, as he revealed in an Instagram video yesterday. He also revealed Rocky Johnson's cause of death, as a deep vein thrombosis, which resulted in blood clot in his lung.

A photo posted by on

Red Notice was originally looking at a November 2020 release under the previous studio, but with the film just getting underway now, it seems that a 2021 release on Netflix is more likely.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.