The Fast & Furious franchise may be one of the biggest and most popular brands in Hollywood, and the crown jewel in Universal’s portfolio of bankable properties, but the blockbuster series has suffered a fair share of setbacks over the years. Paul Walker’s tragic death in 2013 saw the cast lose one of their closest friends, but they’ve since been allowed to carry on his legacy with the blessing of his family, which is fitting for a franchise that treats the word so importantly.
There was also the well-publicized falling out between Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson that led to the two refusing to be in the same room together, which forced the filmmakers into some creative ways to shoot the scenes that required both Dominic Toretto and Luke Hobbs. Tyrese Gibson also voiced his irritation that Johnson had decided to focus on his own spinoff Hobbs & Shaw at the expense of the main series, but there’s more than a hint of envy in his words.
Now, in a recently-deleted Instagram post, Diesel also indicated that there’s trouble brewing behind the scenes on the latest installment of The Fast Saga, and that he’s currently trying to settle a dispute between Universal Studios and the Producers Guild of America, of which the bald-headed action hero is a member. Of course, because nothing ever gets truly deleted from the internet, his words have stirred up speculation regardless and you can read them for yourself below:
“Happy creative Sunday everyone… sorry I haven’t posted much lately, I have been trying to mitigate a war between Universal Studios and the P.G.A. Prejudice Guild of America.”
As one of the key creative driving forces behind the entire franchise along with producer Neal H. Moritz and frequent writer Chris Morgan, Diesel has a huge say in the direction of Fast & Furious, and it seems interesting that he’s voicing his concerns with the ninth installment currently in stasis after recently being delayed for an entire year. Which, for all we know, could be the cause of the disagreements.