The second season of the hit NBC series Young Rock premieres Tuesday night on NBC, and it looks like fans will see even more wrestling than they did in Season 1. PopCulture.com recently caught up with Joseph Lee Anderson and Stacey Leilua who play Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s real-life parents Rocky and Ata Johnson, respectively. They both teased that Young Rock will have more action in the ring.
“Lots more wrestling,” Leilua exclusively told PopCulture. “Wrestling fans will get to see their favorite kind of iconic wrestlers on the screen. I don’t want to give too much away. You’ll see the family go through a whole new journey. As we know, they traveled around a lot and it’s just a bit of a roller coaster. So more of that in Season 2. Yeah. It’s a fun ride.”
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Young Rock shows the beginnings of Dwayne Johnson, whose father was WWE Hall of Fame Rocky Johnson. When Dwayne was 10 years old, Rocky was at the height of his pro wrestling career. He was competing in WWF with the likes of Andre the Giant, The Wild Samonas and his tag team partner Tony Atlas. For Anderson, everything he learned about Rocky was brand new to him.
“I knew nothing,” Anderson said. “I knew nothing about him, so everything, everything I got to learn is new information to me. I didn’t know about him and Tony Atlas being the first African-American tag team champions. I had no idea. I didn’t know why he left the WWF. Maybe we’ll get to hear about that. So it was all new to me.”
Ata Johnson shows her support for Rocky, Dwayne and the pro wrestling business. Leilua revealed what she learned from Ata from the few times they have met. “Just because of COVID and things, we’ve only ever met virtually,” Leilua said. “So we’ve had a few conversations like this, just kind of messaging on social media and things. … I think just in terms of where we’re going with Season 2 and her involvement in the wrestling world, it was really interesting to go back and see some of these old photos of them playing that supporting role to Rocky, but then slowly moving into it becoming the focus on Dwayne.
“And the fact that she has been there through all of that, just getting to hear some of the stories, not only from Ata, but we’ve got Brian Gewirtz from Seven Bucks who’s there, who’s very involved in the wrestling world and has been for a long time. So finding out more about the world of wrestling and just kind of imagining that there’s this woman who fits into that. It was a world where there weren’t that many women around, has just been really fascinating to find out more about.”
Young Rock airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. For more on the NBC sitcom and all your news on Dwayne Johnson, stick to PopCulture.com for the latest.
