Johnson's "Jungle Cruise" and "Smashing Machine" co-star Emily Blunt presented the award.
Dwayne Johnson has been officially crowned a legend — a Disney Legend that is.
On Sunday at D23, Johnson was honored with the hall-of-fame-style award from the Walt Disney Company. From “Jungle Cruise” to the “Moana” franchise and “Race to Witch Mountain,” Johnson is no stranger to the world of Disney. But as he took the stage to receive the honor, Johnson emphasized that his most important role is that of father.
During his off-the-cuff speech, Johnson recalled the first time he took his eldest daughter Simone to Disneyland. She was five years old, and they had breakfast with the princesses.
“I was in my 20s … I was trying to figure that stuff out at that time: how I was going to be a father, how I was going to be a husband, man, etc,” he recalled. “But I remember one of the princesses said, ‘Close your eyes and make a wish.’ And I’ll never forget, [Simone] closed her eyes and she made a wish.”
Johnson continued, getting a little emotional at the memory: “I just remember that moment on my daughter’s face. I had never seen that before. She was just so into making a wish. … I said, ‘God, I wonder what was going through the little mind.’ And it’s just experiences like that that we create that I know she’ll never forget. I’ll never forget. That’s the beauty of Disney. That’s the beauty also of being a Disney Legend.”
As it turns out, the Disney Legends ceremony took place just after Simone’s 25th birthday, so he led the full arena in a “Happy Birthday” tribute to her.
Dwayne Johnson has the #D23 crowd sing “Happy Birthday” to his daughter after receiving his Disney Legends Award. pic.twitter.com/BLpAHHtYh0
During his emotional remarks, Johnson also shouted out his younger daughters, Jasmine and Tiana, who were watching at home. “They asked me, ‘What does it mean to be a Disney Legend?'” he recalled. “I said, ‘Well, it means we get free tickets.'”
Johnson was presented with his Disney Legends award by his “Jungle Cruise” and “The Smashing Machine” co-star Emily Blunt, who made a surprise appearance at the award to wax poetic about her friend.
“When I first met Dwayne Johnson, I had assumed wrongly that he would have the energy of a man who was a sort of walking suplex,” Blunt said. “But the bravado of ‘The Rock’ was actually nowhere to be seen.” Johnson’s persona as “The Rock” is just a performance, she explained. “It’s the performance of a lifetime
“What I was met with was someone who was so disarmingly wise, gentle, curious, totally unpretentious,” Blunt continued. “And not to say this one’s an angel, all right, because he’s not. He’s a non-conforming, rule-breaking, mold-breaking rebel.”
Emily Blunt calls Dwayne Johnson “disarmingly wise, gentle, curious and totally unpretentious” while honoring him as a Disney Legend at #D23: “And that’s not to say this one’s an angel, all right, because he’s not. He’s a non-conforming, rule-breaking, mold-breaking rebel.” pic.twitter.com/fBwRhIyFq6
This summer, Johnson brought “Moana” back to the big screen for a live-action voyage and reprised his role as the demi-god Maui. In the lead-up to the movie’s debut, Johnson spoke about bringing Pacific Islander culture to the masses, and why the “Moana” cinematic universe matters for representation and visibility. Johnson, who also produced the movie, said he didn’t see himself represented in media when he was growing up: “‘Indiana Jones’ inspired me. When I was 8 years old watching Harrison Ford, I was like, ‘I want to be that guy,’ but that guy didn’t look like me.”
As mentioned, the “Moana” movies are just part of Johnson’s legacy with the company. In 2024, Seven Bucks Productions, the film and TV content label founded by Johnson and Dany Garcia, signed a first-look deal with The Walt Disney Company to develop films for theatrical and streaming. Last year, 20th Television closed a first-look TV deal with the company.
The Disney Legends Awards program is a 39-year tradition of The Walt Disney Company, which began when Fred MacMurray (“The Shaggy Dog,” “The Absent-Minded Professor,” “The Happiest Millionaire”) was honored in 1987. Including this year’s honorees, a total of 329 Disney Legends have been named.
The 2026 Disney Legends honorees include former Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger, Anne Hathaway, Susan Egan and Alan Tudyk, for bringing “unforgettable characters to life on-screen and on-stage.” The Jonas brothers are being honored for “shaping a generation of Disney music,” Lin‑Manuel Miranda for “groundbreaking songwriting for modern Disney favorites” and Eric Goldberg for his “artistry and animation.”
Past Disney Legends include Tim Allen, Dame Julie Andrews, Angela Bassett, Tony Baxter, Kristen Bell, James Cameron, Jamie Lee Curtis, Miley Cyrus, Marc Davis, Robert Downey Jr., Harrison Ford, Annette Funicello, Josh Gad, Whoopi Goldberg, Jonathan Groff, Steve Jobs, Sir Elton John, Dame Angela Lansbury, Stan Lee, George Lucas, Steve Martin, Burny Mattinson, Alan Menken, Idina Menzel, Hayley Mills, Fess Parker, Ellen Pompeo, Robin Roberts, the Sherman Brothers, Marty Sklar, Dick Van Dyke, Barbara Walters, Betty White, John Williams, Robin Williams and Oprah Winfrey.