Vin Diesel has always come across as someone supremely confident in their own abilities regardless of what the naysayers think, so it’s not exactly a shock to hear him compare the Fast & Furious franchise to one of the greatest and most popular literary works of the last century.
While there are some similarities between the high-octane action saga and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, they largely begin and end with the concept of a found family coming together under pressure to combat a shared threat, forging a bond along the way that only becomes stronger as the story progresses.
Undeterred by such lofty ambitions, Diesel spoke to Variety at the trailer launch for Fast X, and he found himself firmly in agreement when ruminating on the perils of carrying on a film series for more than 20 years led to the suggestion that he’s overseeing The Lord of the Rings of action movies.
“You know what gets harder? The work off-screen. The thinking, the expanding… there’s a reason why Tolkien stopped writing after a while. Because it’s so hard to continue mythologies. Nobody thinks about it in that context, but it’s real. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to… The Lord of the Rings of action movies. Well said, from your mouth to God’s ears, it’s so true.”
The Tolkien of tank tops has spoken, then, and while the purists may scoff at such comparisons even daring to leave his mouth, we’d wager there are more than a few who would genuinely agree.