Dwayne Johnson, The Rock to millions of viewers, said the memes about his Maui wig made him laugh “so fucking hard” after the live-action Moana remake’s red carpet rollout. The reaction turned one costume choice into part of the film’s conversation before Disney’s release this Friday.
Johnson’s Maui hair
Johnson reprises Maui, whose long flowing hair is part of the character’s look alongside tattoos and exuberance. He is bald, so the wig had to do the visual work that his public image usually does not, and that gap is exactly what the internet seized on.
Some jokes said the wig looked like it was fighting gravity, the wind, and its own contract obligations. Others compared it to a shake-n-go wig from Spirit Halloween, while a third camp decided the hairpiece deserved its own credit in the movie. The memes spread because the wig has to bridge a simple problem: Maui’s hair is not optional, but Johnson’s own head has long been one of his most recognizable features.
2001 and 2025 wigs
Johnson has worn wigs before. In 2025’s The Smashing Machine, he used a wig that replicated the real-life haircut worn by Mark Kerr, and in 2001’s The Mummy Returns he wore a large wig that sat in a tiny little yarmulke balanced daintily on the top of his head.
That history gave the new Moana reaction a sharper edge. The internet has seen Johnson in hairpieces before, but his earlier big-screen roles in Fast & Furious, Baywatch, and Jumanji were built around his bald image, not against it.
Disney’s Friday release
This Friday’s release puts the wig in front of a wider audience fast, which is why the memes landed now instead of fading into a production footnote. For Disney, the upside is simple: the movie is already in the conversation, and Johnson’s laugh suggests the studio does not need to fight the joke when it can ride it.
