Anyone who continues harboring any hopes of Dwayne Johnson branching out and trying something different for a change should probably give up after the actor reaffirmed his desire to remain locked firmly inside his wheelhouse with the news his return to the Fast & Furious franchise would result in a solo spin-off for Luke Hobbs.
Underlining the nonsensical timeline of the series as a whole, The Rock will headline a standalone adventure that leads directly into Fast X: Part 2, but which also isn’t a direct sequel to previous spin-off Hobbs & Shaw. As preposterous as that sounds, it also hints that his issues with former arch-nemesis Vin Diesel aren’t as resolved as he’d claimed.
The beef between the two bald-headed behemoths got so heated that they wouldn’t even share the same shot in The Fate of the Furious, with Johnson turning his back on The Fast Saga entirely as a result. Obviously, he’s since reneged on his pledge after making a mid-credits comeback in Fast X, but there’s no word on whether or not he’s actually going to be in the same movie as Diesel.
The content of the recent stinger points towards Jason Momoa’s Dante Reyes hunting down Hobbs for killing his father, but as of yet Johnson hasn’t been officially added to the roster for Fast X: Part 2. If he doesn’t end up coming on board, then it would be easy to speculate that his refusal to star opposite Diesel is the reason, which would make a mockery of their claims that the issues between them have been resolved.
It might require the joining of a couple of dots, but watch this space to see if it proves to be true.