With director Shane Black having previously talked about his hope to get him on board, it’s now been confirmed that Dwayne Johnson will indeed be taking the titular role in Black’s Doc Savage movie.

The news was confirmed by Johnson himself, who took to his social media accounts to give his thoughts on the role and why he’s so eager to play the Man of Bronze.

Fast & Furious star Johnson said:

IT’S OFFICIAL: For all comic book fans you already know the world’s first superhero (pre-dating Superman) is the “Man of Bronze” himself Clark “Doc” Savage.

Want to thank my bud director/writer Shane Black and his writing team Anthony Bagarozzi and Chuck Mondry for flying in from LA and sitting with me and our Seven Bucks Production’s producer Hiram Garcia on this Memorial Day weekend to chop up creative and break story on this very cool project.

Comic book fans around the world know that the cool thing about “Doc” Savage is that he’s the inspiration for Superman. First name Clark, called “Man of Bronze”, retreats to his “Fortress of Solitude” in the Arctic etc etc.

Doc was physically and mentally trained from birth by his father and a team of scientists to become the perfect human specimen with a genius level intellect. His heightened senses are beyond comprehension. He can even identify a woman’s perfume from half a mile away. He is literally the master of everything.

But here’s the #1 reason I’m excited to become Doc Savage. HE’S A F*CKING HILARIOUS WEIRDO!

Confidently, yet innocently he has zero social graces whatsoever due to his upbringing so every interaction he has with someone is direct, odd, often uncomfortable and amazingly hilarious.

After speaking for hours w/ Shane Black I can see why the creator of Superman took only the best parts of Doc Savage and leading the “weirdo” part behind. But to us, it’s that “weirdo” part that makes Clark “Doc” Savage dope! Can’t wait to sink my teeth into this one of a kind character.

As mentioned, Black had previously stated how he’d like to get Johnson on board to play Savage, and before that there was talk of Chris Hemsworth taking the gig back in 2014. Black would eventually settle on the 10-time World Champion and actually put the project on hold whilst he waited for Johnson’s schedule to free up.

Doc Savage is a character who debuted way, way back in 1933, created by Henry W. Ralston, John L. Nanovic and Lester Dent. As Johnson said, Savage was trained from birth to be the perfect physical and mental specimen, with him being a master surgeon, scientist, physician, inventor, musician and explorer with superhuman powers and who is a master of many martial arts. Like The Rock said, Savage is basically perfect at every single thing you could imagine.

Expect more on Doc Savage as the project develops.