John Cena has become a bonafide Hollywood Superstar in the past few years, making him a part-time inside the squared circle. Ultimately, he decided to hang up her boots for good due to the demanding schedule of the movie industry after going through a retirement tour that spanned across the year 2025.
Before John Cena learned the tidbits of a movie set, The Marine was being structured with a different face of the franchise in mind, none other than “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. The scoop was revealed through Brian Solomon, a former WWE Magazine writer, who shared the behind-the-scenes detail from the movie during an episode of his ‘Shut Up and Wrestle’ podcast.
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Stone Cold was replaced by John Cena in The Marine
Working for the WWE in the early part of the 2000s, under the WWE Films banner, Solomon had access to early drafts of the movie projects planned by the company. He recalled the original script for The Marine and its potential, but only with the right star. WWE was really looking forward to giving Stone Cold an explosive, over-the-top action role before John Cena got selected.
“This could be like a retro action movie sleeper hit, with the right cast, this could actually be really, really damn good,” Solomon said. “The movie sort of like sat on a shelf for a little while,” Solomon explained, “until they figured out what to do with it, and it wound up with John Cena.”
After WWE moved forward with the newbie in the game, who was far from the global icon that he is today. Solomon didn’t hold back on the negative impact of the casting switch. Since John Cena “was just not a very known entity,” and rather “a rookie,” he added that the movie felt “doomed” with that change.
The Marine was released in 2006, marking John Cena’s film debut, and it also proved to be a successful venture. This, the debut flick, also kicked off a surprisingly long-running franchise, through multiple sequels, although none of those saw theatrical release. Rather, they were mostly direct-to-video releases starring other WWE talent like The Miz and Ted DiBiase Jr.