Dwayne Johnson Is Unrecognizable in First Look as 70-Year Old Man in Lizard Music

Dwayne Johnson has traded his signature muscles for movie magic once again. The actor was spotted in Brooklyn on Tuesday filming his upcoming movie Lizard Music, and his transformation is nothing short of astonishing.

New set photos reveal Johnson as a 70-year-old man known as the Chicken Man, complete with a tan bucket hat and coat. The Hollywood superstar walked alongside young co-star Theo Clark Leber, who carried an oversized lizard plush, while Johnson held a slice of pizza. The dramatic prosthetic work comes from acclaimed makeup artist Kazu Hiro, who recently transformed Tom Cruise into a geriatric oil baron for Digger.

Dwayne Johnson transforms into a 70-year-old man in shocking photos from the set of Benny Safdie’s “Lizard Music.”• The movie is based on Daniel Pinkwater’s children’s book and follows a young boy who “stumbles upon strange lizard musicians on late-night TV, leading him to… pic.twitter.com/RyKKUinU8M

Now, Dwayne Johnson’s latest collaboration with director Benny Safdie follows their 2025 movie The Smashing Machine, where the actor played UFC legend Mark Kerr. Speaking at the Toronto Film Festival the same year, the actor revealed he shed 30 pounds of muscle for the role. “I’m so excited to get a chance to hopefully transform again like I was able to do in Smashing Machine,” he said. “[It means] eating less chicken.”

Lizard Music, based on Daniel Pinkwater’s children’s book, follows a young boy who discovers strange lizard musicians on late-night TV and befriends a peculiar man with an elderly chicken. The hybrid live-action and CGI film stars Rachel McAdams, Colman Domingo, Jeff Goldblum, Alicia Silverstone, Regina Hall, David Krumholtz, and Tim Heidecker alongside Johnson and Leber.

Amazon MGM Studios will release Lizard Music theatrically on Christmas Day 2027. Scott Stuber and Nick Nesbitt produce for United Artists, with Safdie producing through Out for the Count Productions, Johnson through Seven Bucks Productions, and David Koplan through Magnetic Fields Entertainment.

Johnson said agreeing to the project required minimal persuasion from Safdie, claiming their conversation lasted “about 45 minutes” during the Toronto Film Festival talk (via Variety). Now, fans will get to see how the entirety of it plays out.

Devanshi Basu is an Entertainment and Pop Culture Writer at Evolve Media with six years of experience in news and digital publishing. Her expertise spans pop culture, and political coverage, with a strong ability to translate them into engaging, reader-focused content. At Evolve Media, she has written news and feature pieces, and managed cross-platform content rollouts tailored to diverse audiences. She brings a sharp understanding of the evolving media landscape to her work, combining research and storytelling to create content that is both relevant and compelling.