10 years ago, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s film career received a major boost when he debuted as Luke Hobbs in Fast Five. Hobbs quickly proved to be a fan-favorite among Fast & Furious fans, and along with returning for the following three installments in the franchise’s primary film series, Johnson teamed with Jason Statham for the Hobbs & Shaw spinoff. Because of his schedule, Johnson sat out the recently-released F9, and now he’s announced that he wouldn’t be returning for the final two main Fast & Furious movies either.
Dwayne Johnson revealed this while promoting Jungle Cruise alongside his co-star Emily Blunt with THR. When the outlet brought up Vin Diesel’s recent comments about his feud with The Rock, namely how it was a “tough love” tactic to get a better performance from the WWE star, Johnson responded:
I laughed and I laughed hard. I think everyone had a laugh at that. And I’ll leave it at that. And that I’ve wished them well. I wish them well on Fast 9. And I wish them the best of luck on Fast 10 and Fast 11 and the rest of the Fast & Furious movies they do that will be without me.
First off, if Dwayne Johnson found Vin Diesel’s comments so amusing, does that mean their feud isn’t done after all? But more importantly, despite director Justin Lin being interested in having Dwayne Johnson back for Fast & Furious 10 and Fast & Furious 11 (or Fast & Furious 10: Part 1 and Part 2, if you prefer), evidently that’s not happening. Whether that’s once again due to Johnson’s full plate of work or he simply just doesn’t want to participate in these movies is unclear, but if you were hoping to see Dominic Toretto and the gang reunite with Luke Hobbs before the main Fast saga concludes, you’re out of luck.
Now to be clear, just because Dwayne Johnson won’t appear in the last two Fast & Furious movies doesn’t mean he’s done with the franchise entirely. After all, Hobbs & Shaw 2 is in development, so at the very least, Luke Hobbs will get into another explosive adventure with Deckard Shaw. It’s also possible Johnson could be persuaded to at least cameo in one or both of the final main entries, thus providing some closure between him and the other main protagonists. If that doesn’t happen, then we’ll just have to hope one or more of them ultimately find their way into the Hobbs & Shaw corner of this world.
Of course, it’s not like Dwayne Johnson sitting out the rest of the main Fast & Furious film series means Hobbs & Shaw 2 is the only blockbuster project lined up. Along with starring in the soon-to-be-released Jungle Cruise and Netflix’s Red Notice later this year, 2022 will see him playing Black Adam, a role he’s been attached to for over a decade. Since Black Adam sequels are already being considered, not to mention him eventually clashing with Zachary Levi’s Shazam, it sounds like we can count on Johnson playing the DC Comics antihero for many more years. So while Luke Hobbs has demonstrated superhuman tendencies, now Johnson is finally getting to play someone with actual superpowers.
You can see Dwayne Johnson both on the big screen and on Disney+ Premier Access when Jungle Cruise comes out on July 30. F9 is still playing in theaters, and as soon as any specific details concerning its sequels are announced, we’ll let you know.
