If a professional wrestler experiences success in WWE and has designs on launching an acting career, then the chances are distinctly high that they’ll orbit the Fast & Furious franchise eventually.
Dwayne Johnson may not be part of the main series anymore, but he remains keen to continue expanding the Hobbs & Shaw corner of the universe, with current world champion Roman Reigns playing a minor supporting role in the spinoff. Ronda Rousey showed up in the sixth installment, Dave Bautista shot down Universal’s overtures to pitch the studio Gears of War instead, while Paul ‘The Big Show’ Wight lent his vocal talents to animated offshoot Spy Racers.
John Cena became the latest WWE alumni to board The Fast Saga when he debuted as Jakob Toretto in last summer’s F9, and in a recent interview with GQ, the Peacemaker star outlines his continued excitement at being part of the family.
“Being able to be invited into the Fast franchise, it was awesome. I grew up on these movies. I love car culture. I love the fact that nobody saw this coming, and it took the world by storm. I love how the franchise has evolved into this superhero-without-cape-spy movie, underground crime scene, but good guy, big caper, fight evil save the world type of stuff.
You walk on set, these people have been doing movies together for 20 years. I’ve never seen anything like that, except the WWE locker room, but had a great time. This is a legacy project for these people. There are very few franchises that get to the ninth installment and can still say they’re kicking ass. These are people that made me better performers.”
Cena hasn’t been officially confirmed for Fast & Furious 10 or 11 as of yet, but it’s pretty much inevitable after he and Vin Diesel’s Dom resolved their differences during the third act of the ninth chapter. He’s a very busy man these days, and keeps getting busier, but the memes will always be there to remind us that nothing is more important than family.