Dwayne Johnson in Moana & The 9 Worst Wigs in Movie History

Moana is the latest Disney animation to get the live-action treatment and is set to release later in 2026. Although fans were happy at the announcement that Dwayne Johnson would be returning as Maui, the reaction to his appearance in the adaptation has not been as well-received. 

The wrestler-turned-actor certainly has the physique to portray the demigod, but while Maui’s locks are long and following, Johnson himself has little on top. In order to match the look of live-action Maui to the animation, the film has had to employ the use of a wig, and the newly released images and trailer prove it to be something of an atrocity. 

One would assume that with the Disney purse strings at their disposal, the Moana team would have been able to create something that looked a tad more realistic. Instead, the hairpiece glimpsed in the trailer is distractingly bad. Although the younger audience members will likely be oblivious to the hate crime against fake hair, the accompanying adults will have a harder time ignoring it. With such an imposing wig, Dwayne Johnson is facing the biggest acting challenge of his career as he attempts to draw audience attention away from it. Johnson is not the first actor to be left stuck with a ropey wig; film history is littered with examples.

From weird hairlines to cheap materials and the perpetual problem of dreadlocks, movies are full of awful hairpieces. Here are just a few films that Moana will find itself situated alongside. 

1. Everyone in Return to Silent Hill (2026)

When it comes to bad wigs of 2026, Moana faces stiff competition from Return to Silent Hill. Not only did the video game adaptation hit the headlines for the mangling of its source material, but the hair of the entire cast also came under scrutiny. 

Directed by Christophe Gans, Return to Silent Hill had, by his own admission, a very limited budget. One place where some more money would have been very beneficial is within the hair and make-up team. Throughout the story, protagonist James encounters a series of near-identical women, the only difference being their hair. The issue is that, although not a feature of the plot, the hair of each of these women is clearly a low-grade wig. 

Each wig on screen is worse than the last, and it is obvious that they were scooped up from a fancy dress shop for peanuts. But that is not where the nightmare ends, as James is also seen, not just sporting a cringeworthy wig, but also a fake beard that looks as if it is held on by sheer force of will. 

2. Nicholas Cage in Ghost Rider (2007)

No other actor in film history has loved a bad hairpiece more than Nicolas Cage, to the point where this list could have exclusively featured films from his back catalogue. Whether it is the washed-up wrestler locks of Con Air, the slick monstrosity seen in Bangkok Dangerous, or the biblically comical wig of The Carpenter’s Son, Cage cares not for how terrible a wig a production has, but just that his character gets hair. 

One of his biggest sins against hair can be found in Ghost Rider. The ill-fitting hairpiece looks as though it has been lifted off of Tom Cruise circa the first Mission: Impossible film. The wig is a clear attempt to make Cage appear younger as the motorcycle-riding antihero. The hair is so bad that it is a relief whenever the equally dreadful CGI skull takes over. 

3. Amber Heard in Aquaman (2018)

Due to their source material, comic book movies often pose problems for the hair and make-up team due to the oftentimes outlandish appearance of their characters. Although zany can be hard to pull off, there is no excuse when the styles are more everyday in appearance. Take Aquaman, for example, although there is nothing wrong with Jason Momoa’s hair, mainly as it was his own, almost every other actor sports a terrible headpiece. Nicole Kidman’s blonde plaited look is garish, the decision to make platinum blonde Dolph Lundgren a redhead is barbaric, but the worst crime committed is against Amber Heard.

The typically blonde actress plays Aquaman’s love interest, Mera, and dons the most vibrant red wig seen on screen since Uma Thurman’s in Batman & Robin. Not only does the colour not suit her skin tone, it also seems to have been made for peanuts - likely due to almost everyone else in the cast also clad in a wig - and is exceptionally hard to ignore. 

4. Jack Black in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

Horror sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer features a pre-fame appearance from Jack Black. Thankfully for him, most people forget about the credit, primarily because he looks nothing like the image of him that audiences have come to know, as he is buried under a wig of fake dreadlocks. His character is a hippie stoner, and whilst Black does fun work with the comedy relief character, those dreadlocks are absolutely repugnant. 

Even still, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer’s biggest crime is against geography, with anyone who has even a passing knowledge of Brazil likely to be left screaming at the television. 

5. Taylor Lautner, Nikki Reed & Ashley Greene in Twilight: New Moon (2009)

Despite being one of the biggest money-making franchises of the ‘00s, the Twilight films appeared to get their wigs from the cheapest possible places. As such, the quality of the hair of pretty much every character was questionable. One of the internet’s favourites is the near knee-length wig that poor Taylor Lautner had to wear in Twilight: New Moon to play a pre-werewolf, Jacob Black. Luckily for him, once the curse took hold, the character was allowed a haircut, instantly giving Jacob one of the best glow-ups in cinema. 

Nikki Reed, who played vampire Rosalie, was less fortunate. The blonde wig she dons from the second film onwards looks like something you might find as part of a cheap Halloween costume. Still, it did save the natural brunette from having to maintain the blonde do, as she did for the original Twilight. Yet another terrible hairpiece can be found atop Ashley Greene, who played Alice. The list honestly could go on and on. 

6. Halle Berry in The Call (2013)

When it comes to character wigs, Halle Berry is basically the female equivalent of Nicolas Cage. Her career is littered with characters brought to life with terrible wigs, with her roles as Storm in X-Men and Catwoman in Catwoman two perfect examples. While both of these examples are bad and have their own fair share of online comments, the absolute worst is the one Berry sports in The Call. The short, overly permed monster almost derails Berry’s entire performance in the taut thriller. Upon The Call’s release, fans raced to the internet to voice their outrage at the unholy creation, but rather than be offended, Berry took it in her stride. 

Never one to take herself too seriously, she famously attended the Razzies to collect her Catwoman awards during the promotion of horror Never Let Go. Berry brought her The Call wig out of retirement and ironically wore it to a screening of her new movie. As fun as the moment is, it begs the question, why on Earth did she hold onto that wig when it should have been sent to the fires of Mordor?

7. Neil and Adrian Rayment in The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

The Matrix is one of the greatest action science fiction films in cinema history. Released in 1999, the film completely rewrote the action cinema guidebook and also merged sci-fi with philosophy in a way that the masses could relate to. It spawned a legion of copycats, as well as some sequels. The first two - The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions - were filmed back to back, and despite everyone’s hope, fell short of capturing the original’s spark. One massive black cross against The Matrix Reloaded is the look of the Merovingian’s henchmen twins. 

The brothers sport identical platinum blonde dreadlocks, which on paper could be cool. The reality, however, is very disappointing, as not only does the hairstyle not match the actors playing them, but somehow the dreadlocks start almost halfway across their skull, giving the appearance of receding dreads, which just make the pair look silly rather than menacing. 

8. Jessica Alba in Fantastic Four (2005)

The only woman in the team, Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four, has historically been a hard look to get right. Or to be more specific, a tricky character to get the hair working for. This issue appears to have been saved in the most recent The Fantastic Four: The First Steps, with the hair looking at least in the right place on Vanessa Kirby. The same cannot be said of her predecessors, Kate Mara and Jessica Alba. 

Of the pair, it is Jessica Alba’s Fantastic Four outings as Sue Storm that draw the most criticism. The blonde wig, coupled with blue contacts, looks out of place on Alba, and although her performance is strong, the oddness of her appearance inspires a very different opinion. It is so jarring that even the most expensive wig in the world could likely not save the character, but would at least stop Alba from looking quite so much like an extra from Barbie. 

9. Robin Tunney in The Craft (1996)

In The Craft, Robin Tunney plays Sarah, a teenager new to LA who gets scooped up by a trio of wannabe witches. With Sarah, an unknowing nature witch, the newly formed coven gains magical abilities, but what starts as fun turns toxic. The Craft is a millennial institution, and if you didn’t attempt to play ‘light as a feather’ during a ‘90s sleepover, you were doing something wrong. As iconic as The Craft is, it has one major fault: Sarah's hair. 

Before starring in The Craft, Robin Tunney had just starred in Empire Records, a project which involved her character shaving her head. This meant that Tunney had no option but to wear a wig to play Sarah, but surely they could have prepared one that looked slightly closer to the star's original hair?