As the Fast and Furious film series has evolved into a more conventional, though still car-focused action franchise over the last decade, that’s resulted in its protagonists getting into more fights. Hobbs and Shaw will certainly be no exception, as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham’s characters find themselves having to stop Idris Elba’s Brixton Lore from unleashing a deadly virus on humanity in the spinoff.
As we saw in the last Hobbs and Shaw trailer, one of the big fights will unfold when Luke Hobbs, Deckard Shaw and Vanessa Kirby’s Hattie Shaw team up with Hobbs’ family to clash with Brixton Lore and his goons in Samoa. With two months to go until the movie’s release, Johnson not only posted this cool behind-the-scenes video of part of this fight, but also shared how it was initially planned for him to bite and spit out his opponent’s eye.
PG-13 movies are granted a fair amount of leeway when it comes to action and violence, but naturally there are some things that are off limits within that rating. Luke Hobbs removing a man’s eye from his socket would have been shocking, brutal and badass, but the MPAA wasn’t having it, so we’ll have to make due with Johnson’s character simply tossing his adversary to the ground and bludgeoning him senseless.
Maybe Hobbs and Shaw could have kept in the eye bite had it been rated R, but the Fast and Furious franchise has always been a PG-13 one, pulling in moviegoers young and old. That’s undoubtedly helps these movies big piles of money, but the tradeoff is that gory moments like the one Dwayne Johnson talked about on Instagram need to be left on the cutting room floor.
Regardless, Hobbs and Shaw definitely doesn’t look like it will be lacking in exciting moments. With each movie, the Fast and Furious franchise gets kookier and more over-the-top, and now we’ve reached the stage where things like a genetically enhanced super soldier and pulling down a helicopter with a chain of trucks are on the table.
Along with the previously mentioned actors, Hobbs and Shaw sees Helen Mirren reprising Magaldene Shaw, Eiza González as Madame M, and Cliff Curtis, Roman Reigns, Josh Mauga and John Tui as Luke Hobbs’ brothers. Eddie Marsan and Ryan Reynolds have also reportedly joined in undisclosed roles. Early box office projections place Hobbs and Shaw at making approximately $100 million opening weekend.
Directed by Deadpool 2’s David Leith and written by longtime Fast and Furious screenwriter Chris Morgan, Hobbs and Shaw charges into theaters on August 2, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more coverage. In the meantime, don’t forget to look through our 2019 release schedule to learn what other movies are coming out later this year.
