There’s “no chance” The Rock will return to the Fast franchise
There are very few franchises in the world that are as big as The Fast and Furious. Each film is a guaranteed box office draw, especially with the likes of Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson leading the way. Earlier this year, the series’ latest installment, F9, led the global box office for several months before it was supplanted by No Time to Die and eventually, No Way Home. But, while F9 did relatively well sans Johnson, Diesel knows just how much pull the Black Adam star has, so he went ahead and publicly asked for The Rock to reconsider reprising his role as Luke Hobbs. Nearly two months after the public appeal, The Rock has finally responded and he’s not exactly a huge fan of what Vin Diesel did. In a recent interview with CNN, The Rock explained that he was “surprised by Vin’s recent post”. He added that the two had hashed it out “not over social media” back in June and that he made it very clear to both Diesel as well as his “partners at Universal” that he would “not be returning to the franchise.” To make matters worse, The Rock singled out Vin Diesel’s plea as an “example of his manipulation”, saying that Diesel didn’t need to bring up other people like Diesel’s children and Paul Walker, who died before filming for Furious 7 was finished back in November 2013. The Rock didn’t exactly have anything bad to say about Diesel, but it’s clear that he didn’t like how his former co-star called him out. It appears that Diesel’s words had the opposite effect of what he probably intended. If anything, what Diesel did could have possibly nixed any chance of The Rock coming back to finish the franchise’s last two mainline films. If it’s any consolation, The Rock isn’t out of Fast and Furious entirely. He’s still very much interested in filming Hobbs and Shaw 2 albeit he’d like the spin-offs featuring him and Jason Statham to end with the second film. In other news, The Rock will make his DCEU debut on July 29, 2022, as the titular anti-hero in Black Adam. Judging from the trailer that was released earlier this year and subsequent teaser images, Johnson’s brand of “superhero” is not for the faint of heart. Meanwhile, Diesel has been busy teasing a new Riddick film. Also, Universal confirmed that The Fast and the Furious 10 will release in May 2023.
