Over the last few years, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson hasn’t been all that shy about calling Vin Diesel a manipulative candy ass.
As recently as December 2021, The Rock said he would never return to Diesel’s Fast & Furious movie franchise. Yet here we are 18 months later, and The Rock returned last month with a cameo at the end of Fast X.
So, what exactly changed?
The Rock posted the following video to officially announce his return to the series as Hobbs. He explained that even though he had his differences with Vin, they were able to come together because it’s what’s best for his wallet the fans:
Hope you’ve got your funderwear on…
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) June 1, 2023
HOBBS IS BACK.
And he just got lei’d
Luke Hobbs will be returning to the Fast & Furious franchise.
Your reactions around the world to Hobbs’ return in Fast X have blown us away
The next Fast & Furious film you’ll see the… pic.twitter.com/vvtBgTBOnl
I’d like to specifically hone in on this sentence from The Rock’s tweet:
“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 FASTX: Part II.”
That sure makes it seem like The Rock will be doing his own Fast movie as his character Hobbs, potentially separate from Vin Diesel’s lead character in the series. According to The Hollywood Reporter, that’s pretty much what is going on here:
“But fans shouldn’t get too excited about on an-screen reunion between Johnson and Diesel just yet. Sources also say that Diesel is not expected to star in this side chapter, although nothing is being ruled out for future projects.
In essence, the two conflicting mega-stars have found a way to reunite behind the screen but not on the screen, to return Johnson to the Fast franchise but without returning him to Diesel’s family dinners.”
The first thing I thought of when I read about this story was AEW creating a whole new weekly Saturday show named Collision, seemingly in order to accommodate the return of top star CM Punk. It sounds like the Collision roster is being carefully picked to keep many of the wrestlers who like Punk with him on the Saturday show, and to separate Punk from the wrestlers who want nothing to do with him on Wednesday night Dynamite.
Who knew that a pro wrestling brand split was how Hollywood solves their backstage problems too?
What do you make of The Rock’s reunion with Vin Diesel, Cagesiders?
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