There might not be a bigger star these days than Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson. The former football player turned WWE star turned movie star is everywhere, from blockbuster films to video game movies to the Super Bowl. Yes, even an organization as giant as the NFL understands that letting The Rock introduce the teams for the biggest sporting event of the year is an easy win. He’s a notable name and face that everyone will recognize.
At least on TV, that’s the way it works. In the world of the internet, The Rock is seen a little differently by the NFL. The demographic for places like YouTube is way younger than the average NFL fan and that means the people stumbling across a video of The Rock’s pregame speech might not immediately recognize him as WWE superstar The Rock. Instead, they might know him for something he appeared in such as the guy from Jumanji, or Moana, or Fortnite. Maybe that’s why, when the NFL posted the YouTube video for The Rock’s speech he was labeled as the “Guy from Fortnite.”
For people of a certain age, this is a really funny description for someone as famous as The Rock. Here is arguably the biggest movie star in the world and he’s been labeled down to being a character in a game where players can also use a giant lifelike banana, Spider-Man, or LeBron James. But for younger audiences, that might be an easier way to realize that’s who he is.
Fortnite is one of the most popular games in the world and everyone of all ages plays it. While The Rock may be more famous for everything he did that got him into Fortnite, there’s no question that Fortnite is even more famous than he is. So in this moment, he can be known as “The guy from Fortnite” because there is guaranteed to be someone out there that knows him more for being in the game than for his movies.