Young Rock Season 2 will include more of a WWE legend who was close to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. According to Deadline, Matthew Willig, who plays Andre the Giant, has been promoted to series regular in the NBC comedy series. In the first season, viewers saw how Andre become good friends with Johnson’s family. Johnson’s father, the late Rocky Johnson, worked with Andre when they were both with WWE.
Season 1 of Young Rock focused on different chapters in Dwayne Johnson‘s life. From growing up in a strong family to his playing days at the University of Miami, Young Rock details the stories that made Johnson the entertainment icon he is today.
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The 8th Wonder of the World & the punk scrub known as lilโ Dewey.
Andre was a hero of mine.
And for some reason he took a liking to me too & always treated me like his own son. Maybe because we both had afrosโ๐พ๐คฃVery special #YoungRock TONIGHT-@NBC 8/7c.#MyDayWithAndre๐ค pic.twitter.com/uxXWNRhdMe
โ Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) March 30, 2021
“Once we decided that the time periods of my life that we were going to show – 10 years old, 15 and 18 – at 15, I had already been arrested multiple times, I was trying to find my way. I was doing a lot of things I shouldn’t have been doing, getting suspended from school, moving from school to school to school, so the actor who had to play that really had to bring all that with him,” Johnson said to Entertainment Tonight in February.
“And Bradley [Constant], when he sent in his audition, I immediately knew. ‘There’s me at 15,’ and then I had a chance to meet with Bradley virtually because we were locked down with COVID and we had a great call and he committed. I got really, really lucky to have somebody as good as Bradley play me at 15.”
Andre the Giant, who died in 1993 at the age of 46, was one of the most dominant figures in WWE during the 1970s and 1980s. He won the WWE Championship and the Tag Team Championship in his career, and his most memorable match was against Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania III. Andre lost the match, but he put Hogan over, leading to him being a megastar. Andre was the first inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1993.