If you saw Fast X — and spoilers ahoy if you didn’t — you know that it ended with the surprise return of Dwayne Johnson’s Agent Luke Hobbs, who became the Fast family’s adversary in Fast Five, and then one of its biggest members (literally) in Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7, and The Fate of the Furious. After that, Johnson got his own Fast spinoff, Hobbs & Shaw, but his rocky relationship with Fast star and producer Vin Diesel meant he was otherwise gone from the main Fast storyline.
As recently as late 2021, Vin Diesel was publicly lobbying Johnson to return for the multipart Fast & Furious finale — and Johnson was publicly saying he wanted nothing to do with it. (“I’m confident in the Fast universe and its ability to consistently deliver for the audience… I truly wish my former co-stars and crew members the best of luck and success in the next chapter,” he said at the time.)
Obviously, something changed Johnson’s mind. While he kept quiet about it for a while in order to let people discover his Fast X cameo in the theater, Johnson publicly announced his Fast return on his Twitter account today.
“Luke Hobbs will be returning to the Fast & Furious franchise,” he wrote. Johnson also revealed that he will be headlining a solo Hobbs movie “that will serve as a fresh, new chapter & set up for Fast X: Part II.”
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“Last summer Vin and I put all the past behind us. We’ll lead with brotherhood and resolve – and always take care of the franchise, characters & FANS that we love,” Johnson also wrote.
Diesel and Johnson’s feud became the subject of much online discussion through the years. Johnson fueled those rumors when he at one point posted a comment on social media slamming unnamed “male co-stars” who were, in his estimation, “candy asses.” While he later deleted the post, he openly acknowledged that he and Diesel were “philosophically two different people, and we approach the business of moviemaking in two very different ways.” And he turned down multiple efforts from Diesel to get him to come back for Fast X.
As to what changed … well, other than his Jumanji movies, Johnson has not had a lot of big hits lately. His Black Adam was supposed to start a long-running tentpole franchise for DC, but the film underwhelmed at the box office and it appears that, at least for now, there won’t be a sequel. Six of Johnson’s ten highest grossing movies are his Fast films; the other four are the two Jumanjis, plus Moana and San Andreas. If he wants to re-solidify his status as a major box-office draw, showing up for one more Fast blowout is probably the easiest way to do it.
Fast X 2 was scheduled to open in theaters next year — but if Hobbs needs to come out before it, that is almost certainly not happening anymore.
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