'Young Rock' in Memphis: NBC TV series to film third season in the Bluff City

"Young Rock," the NBC television series that chronicles the pre-stardom career and misadventures of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, will shoot its third season in Memphis.

"Young Rock" was based in Australia for its first two seasons, so the decision to move the show to Memphis is something of a surprise. The Memphis production office near Downtown opened Monday.

The production would represent the first major film or television project to be based in Memphis since "Bluff City Law," the legal drama with Jimmy Smits that was shot here in 2019 and lasted a single season on NBC.

"The project will engage local crew, suppliers and other vendors to support all phases of production, including construction, catering, transportation and set decoration," the Universal corporate communications reported in a statement Tuesday.

Shooting begins in September and continues through the end of January. The season will consist of 10 to 12 episodes.

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"Young Rock" is narrated by Johnson, the professional wrestler-turned-actor whose credits include "Hercules," the recent "Jungle Cruise" and several "Fast and Furious" movies.

The episodes are presented as flashbacks, with actors playing the Rock as a child, a high school student and a young man. The strange concept of the series is that Johnson is running for president of the United States in 2032, and the stories that make up the episodes are presented as campaign-trail reminiscences.

Multiple episodes during the second season were set in Memphis, where The Rock fought at the start of his career. The show featured actors portraying such local grappling legends as Jerry Lawler, Downtown Bruno, Bam Bam Bigelow and "Soulman" Rocky Johnson (The Rock's father). Sets were built in Australia to recreate such sites as Memphis television's "studio wrestling" soundstage; in one episode, The Rock describes TV wrestling as "the biggest thing in Memphis."

"Young Rock" is a production, in part, of Johnson's Seven Bucks Productions, Universal Television, Fierce Baby Productions and World Wrestling Entertainment. Richard Ross, a senior vice president of production at NBCUniversal who previously had worked on "Bluff City Law" and has a home in Memphis, likely played a significant role in the decision to relocate the production here. Ross is married to Memphian Deborah Dismukes, who has worked as an actress and crew member on such films as "Lethal Weapon" and the made-in-Memphis "Walk the Line."

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Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commissioner Linn Sitler said she believes "Young Rock" begins "the first wave of production" expected to come to Tennessee following the General Assembly's passage of more generous tax credits for film and television production in the state. In addition, she said, the choice of Memphis suggests that NBC recognizes "our reputation as a film-friendly city." Of course, the relocation from Australia to Memphis also will be easier on most of the cast.

Sitler pointed out that "Young Rock" is only the fourth primetime scripted series to be shot in Memphis. The others were "Bluff City Law," CMT's "Sun Records" (2017) and ABC's "Elvis" (1990), which starred Michael St. Gerard as young Elvis Presley.

NBC did not announce that "Young Rock" would have a third season until the end of June. The first episode of the new season is set to debut Nov. 4 — a date that also marks the move of the series from Tuesday to Friday night.

Although Johnson's scenes in the program are disconnected from the main "flashback" plotlines, officials said The Rock is expected to be in Memphis for the show, along with such other series regulars as Adrian Groulx (who plays the 10-year-old Johnson), Bradley Constant (15-year-old Johnson) and Uli Latukefu (Johnson as a young adult). However, the actors' schedules have yet to be fixed.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: 'Young Rock' on NBC to film third season in Memphis