He’s taken charge of the Bifrost for Marvel’s Thor series (and Avengers: Infinity War!) and roamed the streets of London as Detective Chief Inspector John Luther, but for his next gig, Idris Elba will be squaring off against two Hollywood heavyweights in Hobbs and Shaw.
That’s the tentative title given to Universal’s Fast and Furious spinoff, which currently has Deadpool 2 helmer David Leitch behind the wheel and franchise architect Chris Morgan on script duties. Front and center are Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham as special agent Luke Hobbs and seasoned crook Deckard Shaw, the original antagonist of Furious 7 before Statham’s gruff petrolhead switched sides – not unlike Dwayne Johnson’s own character trajectory in this juggernaut franchise.
Now, they’ll be fighting out of the same corner, with Variety reporting today that Hobbs and Shaw will be going up against a common enemy in Idris Elba’s mystery big bad. Vanessa Kirby has also been announced as part of the ensemble cast.
How this affects Universal’s future plans for Fast and Furious 9 and 10 remains to be seen. Dwayne Johnson’s global star power is enough to steer this franchise in a new and exciting direction, but we imagine Vin Diesel et. al won’t be too pleased by the decision.
Nevertheless, here’s confirmation of that Idris Elba casting, courtesy of Dwayne Johnson himself:
I promised we were going to make this Fast & Furious spin off awesome and grow our franchise properly. He’s a bad man (legit bad ass). I better toughen up 👀😉 #HobbsAndShaw https://t.co/oERduIlTwz
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) July 5, 2018
Filming on Hobbs and Shaw is due to begin this fall ahead of an expected summer 2019 release – July 26th, to be precise. Dwayne Johnson, on the other hand, currently has Skyscraper coming down the pike, while Jason Statham is about to come face-to-face with a prehistoric shark for The Meg. Let the summer movie season begin!