Why Netflix Canceled Chris Hemsworth's Hulk Hogan Movie

Wrestling icon Hulk Hogan has left behind a legacy that is both immensely problematic and impossible to ignore. Perhaps one of the most instantly recognizable personalities in professional wrestling, Hogan was a major player during the 1980s wrestling boom (his 1988 match with André the Giant still boasts insane American viewership records). Since then, things have only gone downhill, with one controversial scandal after another piling up, culminating in the unsavory Gawker lawsuit and the exposure of Hogan's racist mindset, cementing his fall from grace in the public eye.

Hogan's legacy as a legendary, but deeply conflicting public figure (who also made some very questionable decisions that negatively impacted the wrestling sphere) is, for better or worse, fuel for a big-budget Hollywood biopic. As a result, a Hulk Hogan biopic with Chris Hemsworth set to star as the wrestler was in development for the longest time before being scrapped by Netflix last year. First announced in 2019, this untitled biopic had attracted Todd Phillips' ("Joker," and its disastrous follow-up, "Joker: Folie à Deux") attention soon after, with Hogan himself acting as one of the producers. "I love what we were trying to do, but that's not going to come together for me," Phillips told Variety in 2024, offering a direct but vague reasoning while stating that his priorities had shifted after the explosive, unexpected success of his 2019 crime thriller, "Joker."

Although details about this untitled biopic remain scarce, it was supposed to trace Hogan's promising rise to fame in the 1980s (as opposed to his more recent lawsuits/scandals) and dwell on the more unseen aspects of pro wrestling. What exactly happened here, and why did this long-gestating project abruptly get canceled? 

Hemsworth, best known for playing Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has proven time and again that his appeal as a performer eclipses roles that solely channel his rugged physicality. The Hogan biopic, however, demanded an actor who could take on the challenge of such a physically demanding role, and Hemsworth seemed like the right fit for such a committed performance. The actor opened about this "insanely physical" role during a 2020 interview with Total Film (via IGN):

"This movie is going to be a really fun project [...] As you can imagine, the preparation for the role will be insanely physical. I will have to put on more size than I ever have before, even more than I put on for Thor. There is the accent as well as the physicality and the attitude."

However, three years later, Hogan appeared on the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast and claimed that the project was scrapped due to a "business glitch" that occurred due to contract-related reasons:

"They [Netflix] kind of missed a beat in the contract. There was a payment that wasn't placed at the right time. The script was amazing. Scott Silver, who wrote the script for 'Joker', 'The Wolf of Wall Street', [and] a bunch of other movies, said, 'This is the best thing I've ever written.' [...] Spent about three years with this writer going back and forth. When I read it, it was just very, very dark, if that would be the right word. But it was probably what the public may want to see. [...] there was talk that Chris Hemsworth had never played a real person before [for a biopic] and he could probably win an Oscar, this thing is so powerful."

Sure enough, Netflix announced the cancellation a year later, citing multiple delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the SAG-AFTRA strikes as the official reason for the same. However, another Hogan-centered project is currently in development, as reports have confirmed that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's Artists Equity Production Company acquired a screenplay for a film titled "Killing Gawker" in 2024. There have been no official updates about casting or release date for "Killing Gawker" so far, but this could change in the near future.