After a surprise Easter egg at the end of last month’s “Fast X,” Universal Pictures announced the untitled project Thursday, with the action franchise’s past writer-producer Chris Morgan behind the new spinoff’s script, per the Hollywood Reporter. And shortly after, Johnson, who in 2021 vowed to never return to the muscle-car saga, confirmed his change of heart from a lanai in Hawaii.
“Hobbs is Back! And he just got lei’d,” the “Hobbs & Shaw” and “Black Adam” star said in a video posted to Instagram. The Rock also addressed the years-long beef that has played out through not-so-cryptic social media posts and interviews between him and his “Fast” and “Fast & Furious 6” co-star Diesel. (Johnson traded barbs with Diesel on Instagram in 2016 and in 2021 told CNN that his former co-star was manipulative.)
But they’ve since left that drama in the dust.
According to Johnson’s confirmation, last summer he and Diesel put the past in the past. Johnson explained that despite his differences with Diesel, they’ve “been like brothers for years” and now they are “leading with resolve” and focusing on plans bigger than themselves.
“Those bigger plans are the North Star, as I always like to say the North Star is always my guiding light, and in this case, the North Star is the franchise that we love, the North Star [is] our characters that we love, and the North Star [is] our fans that we love. So when you add all that up it’s really not a hard decision to make. It’s a yes, so yes, cannot wait,” Johnson added.
Diesel, who has starred in the 10 main “Fast & Furious” films, liked Johnson’s Instagram post announcing the reconciliation. His One Race Company will co-produce the film with Johnson’s Seven Bucks Productions, furthering signs that the two “Fast & Furious” stars are a united front moving forward.
Representatives for Diesel did not immediately respond Friday to The Times’ request for comment.
As for the trouble Hobbs will be getting into in the new “Fast & Furious” installment, plot details aren’t yet available. But, according to Variety, the movie will bridge events that took place in the recently released “Fast X” and the forthcoming “Fast X: Part II” due in theaters in 2025.
Johnson, Diesel and Morgan are co-producing the film alongside Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, Samantha Vincent, Jeff Kirschenbaum and Neal Moritz.
(Jaimie Trueblood / Universal Pictures)
Longtime “Fast & Furious” collaborator Morgan wrote and produced the Johnson/Jason Statham spinoff “Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” (2019). He also produced the eighth installment of the blockbuster franchise, “The Fate of the Furious” (2017), as well as the fifth, sixth and seventh installments.
“Hobbs is back in the Fast and Furious franchise. And, man I gotta tell you … it has been so incredibly, personally gratifying and satisfying and humbling and exciting to see your reactions around the world,” Johnson said in his video. “The secret of Hobbs being back … was hard as hell to keep.
“The next ‘Fast & Furious’ film you’ll see the legendary lawman in will be the Hobbs movie that will serve as a fresh, new chapter & set up for ‘Fast X: Part II’” Johnson wrote in the caption, before concluding, “Daddy’s gotta go to work” and signing off as his namesake character.