With The Fate of the Furious currently the world’s biggest film, raking in about $700m worldwide the last time I checked, it’s understandable that Universal has decided to move ahead with a series spinoff starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. Now, it’s rumored that The Fate of the Furious’ villain, Cypher (Charlize Theron), is set to make an appearance, too.
Though her sinister car-controlling/blackmail schemes were thwarted, she managed to elude the heroes and beat a hasty exit. Thus, we presume the plot of the spinoff will be Johnson and Statham combining their mechanical knowhow and driving skills in order to track her down. With Universal yet to confirm this, though, take it all with a pinch of salt.
The news of the spinoff just landed, and while somewhere in West Hollywood someone is quickly sketching out a narrative involving car chases and musclebound bromancing, nothing is set in stone at the moment. Still, it would make a decent amount of sense for a spinoff to tie up this dangling plotline before a new villain rears their head for the next proper Fast and the Furious instalment.
It’s a smart move for Universal to be branching out like this. On set gossip of feuding between Johnson and Vin Diesel marred production of the last movie, and covering the paycheques of this increasingly busy ensemble cast can’t be the easiest thing in the world. My bet is that the spinoff is going to go into production at nitrous speed and we’ll probably see it sometime next summer. And, given how much chemistry Johnson and Statham had in The Fate of the Furious, I’m betting that it’s going to be another winner for the seemingly unstoppable franchise.