Timothy Olyphant Was Tapped For A Major Fast And Furious Role
It's impossible to think of the "Fast and Furious" movies without thinking about Vin Diesel. The franchise belongs to Diesel, who not only stars but also produces the series and takes a very hands-on approach, by which I mean he's constantly talking about the movies and their potential sequels and spin-offs. Diesel plays Dominic Toretto, a street-racer and mechanic, and I guess he's also a spy or something. It's not really clear to me. All I know is that Dom and his family team up over and over again for logic-defying adventures that always involve cars of some kind. And Diesel, with his gravelly voice and fondness for tank tops, is the perfect leader.
Now, imagine someone else in the role. Imagine, oh, let's say ... Timothy Olyphant. Yes, that's right, the star of "Deadwood," "Justified," and more, was once in the running to be the head of the Fast Family. In EW's oral history of the first movie, producer Neal H. Moritz dropped this bit of info:
"The studio said, 'If you get Timothy Olyphant to play the role of Dominic Toretto, the movie's greenlit.' We went to Tim and he passed, and we wondered if we were going to get to make it."
I guess the studio was really excited about Timothy Olyphant at the time. But why did Olyphant pass?
'This will just be stupid'
I like Timothy Olyphant, but Dom is such a reflection of Vin Diesel that I genuinely can not picture Olyphant in that role. And it seems Olyphant couldn't, either. While appearing on "Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen" (via Yahoo), the actor amusingly mused on why he passed on the part:
"I just thought, well, this will just be stupid, and I thought no one is gonna wanna see this movie eight or nine different times. I mean, by the third or fourth sequel, people are gonna definitely get bored of it. Right?"
Oh Timothy Olyphant, you silly goose. To be fair: the first movie is stupid, so it's not like Olyphant was off-base. And of course, "Fast" fans will probably tell you this all worked out for the best. Diesel became Dom and Olyphant went off to have his own interesting career. He even got to appear in a car-based movie — the somewhat forgotten Nicolas Cage pic "Gone in 60 Seconds," which honestly isn't that bad as far as "dumb action movies about cars" go.
Olyphant will next be seen in the "Justified" sequel series "Justified: City Primeval." As for Diesel, he's still playing Dom, and while there's plenty of talk about the "Fast" saga ending with the next film, we all kind of know that probably won't happen and that Diesel will be talking about family for the rest of his career.