Ever since he arrived onto the Fast & Furious scene for 2011’s Fast Five, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has become one of the franchise’s most prominent faces, to the point that he and Jason Statham scored their own spinoff, Hobbs & Shaw. To that end, while Johnson is by no means done with the Fast & Furious franchise as a whole, he did say back in July that he will not return for the final two installments in the main Fast & Furious film series. Since then, Vin Diesel has urged Johnson to change his mind about this, and now Hobbs & Shaw producer Hiram Garcia has given his take on Diesel’s plea.
For those of you who missed it, earlier this month, Vin Diesel went on Instagram to ask that Dwayne Johnson, whom he referred to as “little brother,” return for Fast 10, as the WWE star’s character, Luke Hobbs, has “a very important role to play.” While promoting Red Notice, the latest movie hailing from Johnson and Hiram Garcia’s production company Seven Bucks Production, Garcia was asked by ScreenRant what he thought about Diesel’s request, and he responded with the following:
Look, you can never predict or control what's going to come out of that world. So I'm very used to it by now. I think we're both very used to it. I know. I haven't been able to really connect with DJ on it because he's been buried in promoting Red Notice. But yeah, I'm used to it. It's what comes with that world. You get crazy curve balls thrown and you just roll with it.
So from Hiram Garcia’s perspective, Vin Diesel’s social media post came out of left field, and because the Red Notice promotional tour has been in full swing, Garcia and Dwayne Johnson haven’t had the chance to talk about this particular subject. But for now, Garcia is taking this in stride, and he even admires that Diesel reached out to Johnson to see if he’d change his mind about Fast 10, speculating that the Dominic Toretto actor might have contacted his former Fast & Furious costar about the matter privately. As the producer put it:
It's the Fast family. Look, DJ's the biggest movie star in the world. No one's below trying all attempts and approaches to try and get him on board. So I appreciate it. You got to take your shot. You never know. I'm sure there's a couple DMs that slid in there too. I'm sure he slid into the DMs as well.
While it’s not impossible that Dwayne Johnson could reverse course and agree to appear in Fast 10 and/or Fast 11, even for just a cameo, like Hiram Garcia noted, he’s arguably the biggest movie star in the world. As such, he understandably has a busy schedule, from his Christmas action movie Red One to future outings as Black Adam in the DC Extended Universe. Then there’s the year-long feud between Johnson and Diesel that needs to be taken into account.
Vin Diesel And Dwayne Johnson’s Past Drama
The Fast & Furious movies have been touting the importance of family since the beginning, and in real life, many of the franchise’s lead actors are quite close with one another, such as Jordana Brewster once saying that Vin Diesel is like a big brother to her. Diesel and Dwayne Johnson, however, have frequently been at odds, which came to light during the making of The Fate of the Furious when Johnson referred to some of his male costars as “candy asses” on social media. It quickly became apparent he was talking about Diesel, and it was also reported that Johnson only agreed to come back for the eighth Fast & Furious movie if he didn’t share any scenes with Diesel (who would later reveal that he’d given Johnson a lot of “tough love” in his efforts to make the Luke Hobbs performance the best it could be).
After that social media post, Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel had a one-on-one meeting, during which time it became clear to the two actors that they have a “fundamental difference in philosophies on how we approach moviemaking and collaborating,” as Johnson once put it. Nevertheless, during the press tour for The Fate of the Furious, Diesel said that the field had been “blown out of proportion,” and two years later, it appeared that the feud was finally over when Johnson thanked Diesel for his support of Hobbs & Shaw.
Whether or not his past clashes with Vin Diesel played into Dwayne Johnson’s decision not to reprise Luke Hobbs in the main Fast & Furious film series, needless to say we’ll let you if opts to show up after all. Still, with this saga coming to an end, no doubt many fans of the franchise would welcome Hobbs’ presence, especially since F9’s post-credits scene potentially teased that Deckard Shaw, Hobbs’ current partner, could appear in one or both of these final installments now that Han Lue is back in play.
As things stand now, Fast 10 is slated for an April 7, 2023 release, and Dwayne Johnson fans can now see him performing opposite fellow Fast & Furious actors Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot in Red Notice on Netflix.
