Actor John Cena recently lent his talents to a marketing campaign for Supercell‘s mobile game “Brawl Stars,” which has introduced a collaboration with Nickleodeon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants” amid the cartoon’s 25th anniversary.
While a seemingly strange choice of star to promote the Paramount-Supercell teamup, Cena explained to Variety how his passion for mobile gaming and his history with the WWE makes him a good fit to lead promo for the “SpongeBob” tie-in.
“Honestly, I don’t think it’s weird at all. I think I heard a stat that SpongeBob is talked about on social media just about every four seconds,” Cena said. “So that is even ahead of WWE level reach. It’s just one of those characters that’s resonated with multiple generations. So although I’ve never been involved in the ‘SpongeBob’ world, nor has SpongeBob come over and won a steel cage match ever, I think the personalities and the shows have had such a long run. They’re all very, very big, they’re very overwhelming, they appeal to everybody. It’s humor that kids can get, that adults can get, it’s multi-generational brands. So in that respect, we run on similar tracks. I think there’s a lot more similarities than one would think.”
Supercell/Paramount
General manager of the “Brawl Stars” brand at Supercell Frank Keienburg says their choice was about “an opportunity to harness the nostalgia and celebrate the enduring appeal of these two beloved icons.”
“‘SpongeBob Squarepants’ has a history of breaking the fourth wall and featuring celebrities throughout the history of the franchise,” Keienburg said. “On our end we wanted to add another unexpected layer to our partnership, while bringing someone on board who is a long-time fan of Supercell games and who is beloved by our fans. Many of our players grew up watching ‘SpongeBob’ and following John’s journey as a WWE wrestler and actor and we love his energy.”
As for how the crossover between Supercell and “SpongeBob” will work in “Brawl Stars,” Cena teased a giant overhaul to one of his favorite games from now until Oct. 2.
“For the next month, ‘Brawl Stars’ becomes a whole new world,” Cena said. “It’s almost like invaded by the ‘SpongeBob ‘universe. So if you’re a familiar player, that’s cool to bring out new challenges, new power-ups. That’s a trial and error process. You might lose a few testing the waters, but hopefully you get the proficiency and start kicking some butt. There’s some great new characters, new gameplay.”
When Cena’s not hard at work promoting the new “Brawl Stars” partnership with Bikini Bottom, he’s filming Season 2 of James Gunn’s “Peacemaker” — but remaining very tight-lipped about plot details or when the Max series will return.
“We are in progress. That is the safest answer I can give without anybody knocking on my door and telling me I’m fired,” Cena said. “Personally, I am very happy, so I hope that translates to everybody who is anticipating it.”
He does actually share just a bit more when pressed on how long the wait has been, specifically regarding James Gunn and Peter Safran’s takeover of the DC Universe at Warner Bros. Discovery since Season 1 of “Peacemaker” aired in early 2022.
“What you got to understand and keep in mind is I’m the guy who plays Peacemaker,” Cena said. “So when we come out with a show and it’s the No. 1 show on Max and, finally, we take a character who is supposed to be dead, bring Peacemaker back to life, and people enjoy the universe and want to see more of it — but then you have a shift in the structure of who is calling the shots over at DC. James and Peter actually both called me and said, ‘You know what, we want to take some time to do this right. But it’s just going to take a little time.’ So it was crazy to know we did something people want, they want more of it, let’s do it again. And everybody’s like, ‘No wait, we just got to do a few things first. And we have this whole plan, and it’s all going to work together. So if you just trust us, we’ll be okay.’ And it seems like forever ago, now that we’re filming every day, it seems like it will be just right around the corner that we’re watching Season 2.”
