Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne Johnson are close friends, but there are also a lot of similarities to be drawn in their lives and careers. For one thing, they’re the two highest-paid actors in Hollywood, who both run their own production companies and take a hands-on approach to the creation and development of all their projects.
Then there are the outside business interests, with each star investing in a number of enterprises. Reynolds recently purchased a soccer team with It’s Always Sunny in Philadephia‘s Rob McElhenny, while Johnson bought an entire football league when he spearheaded the consortium that acquired the XFL from his former WWE boss Vince McMahon.
Not only that, but Reynolds has his Aviation gin and Johnson launched Teremana tequila last year, and both stars built their onscreen success on largely playing the same type of role over and over again. The former tends to rely on his quick-witted and sardonic persona, while the latter can typically be found headlining effects-driven blockbusters where he’s a former or current military or law enforcement officer of some description.
Not content with co-starring in Hobbs & Shaw and Netflix’s Red Notice, insider Daniel Richtman is now claiming that Reynolds wants to emulate his buddy’s success and become one of the biggest action stars on the planet. If you were to ask 100 people to name cinema’s most popular current action star, then the majority of them would plump for The Rock, but the Deadpool actor surely wouldn’t be too far behind.
Both have a slew of upcoming action-orientated blockbusters in development set to arrive over the next couple of years, but we’ll just have to wait and see if Ryan Reynolds can dislodge Johnson from his perch as the genre’s most well-known and bankable presence.
