Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt are joining forces again, but not for Jungle Cruise 2… at least, not yet. While attending the 96th Academy Awards, Johnson revealed that he will be working with his Jungle Cruise co-star on an MMA-related biopic, The Smashing Game, next. However, Johnson would like to see Frank Wolff, aka Francisco Lopez de Heredia, set sail again with Dr. Lily Houghton. Johnson responded to a question about making a follow-up to the 2021 Disney film in an interview with Variety:

Possibly. Down the line, yeah, I’d wanna do it. Maybe, we’ll see.
When Johnson was asked about teaming up again with his Jungle Cruise co-star for The Smashing Machine, the actor said in the same interview:

“I can’t wait. We’re shooting The Smashing Machine. Benny Safdie is writing and directing it. It’s a biopic about one of the godfathers of MMA who struggled with addiction. He struggled with love, he struggled with success, struggled with loss. And Emily, one of my best friends, and one of the greatest actresses ever, is obviously nominated tonight. I’m very happy for her and all her ‘Oppenhomies.’ And, it’s with A24 and we’ll shoot that next. I can’t wait.”

Johnson added:

“It’s much different than what we did with ‘Jungle Cruise,’ but I got to tell you there is no greater partner in our industry than Emily who I would want to have to rip this thing open. So, you know, she was filming with Benny Safdie on Oppenheimer a few years ago, and they were talking about The Smashing Machine, we were talking about it back then. So, this is a long time coming, man.”

Dwayne Johnson Had to Convince Emily Blunt to Take Their Jungle Cruise

Producer Hiram Garcia said Jungle Cruise 2 would be a worldwide adventure, but nearly three years after the original film hit theaters, the sequel’s ship has yet to set sail. And while promoting the Disney flick back in 2021, Dwayne Johnson revealed that his creative and charming ways of trying to woo Emily Blunt — The Rock shot a video for the actress to watch — to join the big-screen adventure were “ghosted.” Johnson said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:

“I had always admired her as an actor, but also when I would watch her on talk shows, she had this personality that was effervescent, that was cool and very, very charming […] I must have shot it about five or six times because I had not communicated with Emily yet. I had not even met her. And I wanted to let her know via this video just how important she was to this movie and how I only wanted her in this movie. And it was great. And I… I actually never heard again from Emily. Didn’t respond at all. Just ghosted me.”

While the acting duo was doing press together, Johnson and Blunt’s chemistry and sense of humor clearly shined through. And Blunt hilariously addressed the video Johnson made to try and convince the actress to join him on their eventual Jungle Cruise. Blunt said in an interview that she did with Johnson for Lorraine:

“Listen, I didn’t want you to know that I was in at that point, okay? I was playing that game: a little cat and mouse. But no, it was the most touching video. It was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. It was an overture. I felt very flattered and then a little bit scared for my life, because it was stalkerish [Johnson laughs].”
Johnson and Blunt’s team-up led to Jungle Cruise making $221 million worldwide in a box office climate still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. And even though a Jungle Cruise sequel was announced back in 2021 , at the time of this writing, there’s not an official release date attached to the project.