Hobbs And Shaw Sequel Could Be The 'Antithesis' Of A Fast And Furious Movie, Says Dwayne Johnson
There's no end in sight to the saga of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and the "Fast and Furious" franchise. Or is there? Johnson has had an ongoing feud with franchise star and producer Vin Diesel, and he most recently said that he regrets his part in making that feud public. Over the summer, he confirmed that he is done with the "Fast & Furious" film series. Of course, outside the main series, the franchise now extends to include the spin-off film "Hobbs & Shaw," starring Johnson and Jason Statham.
Speaking to Sirius XM (via CBR), Johnson teased an idea for a "Hobbs & Shaw" sequel that would give his character, Luke Hobbs, a definitive ending. Here is what he said:
"When it comes to Hobbs and Shaw, which we loved and loved making that movie, there's an idea that I had that I called [Universal Pictures chairwoman] Donna Langley, called our writer Chris Morgan, our producer Hiram Garcia, and I said, 'I have this idea and this direction for [Hobbs and Shaw 2].' And I pitched, and it would be, without giving it away... it would be the antithesis of what Fast & Furious movies generally are in that they continue to go on and go on and go on.
"In this case, I wanted to and still want to do the quintessential Hobbs movie that, again without giving it away, that you watch a man walk off into the sunset... I said, 'We have an opportunity here to go against the grain and let's disrupt things a little bit and let's create a movie within the Fast & Furious world that is unexpected.' "
Driving Off Into the Sunset
It's understandable why Johnson might say that the "Fast and Furious" movies have gone on and on, but in all fairness to that franchise and its fans, it does have a planned ending. The tenth and eleventh movies will be a two-parter concluding the main series. So with it already getting ready to drive off into the sunset, I don't necessarily think that having Hobbs "walk into the sunset" would make a "Hobbs & Shaw" sequel the antithesis of "Fast & Furious."
It seems more like Johnson and Diesel are just the antithesis of each other and this is part of that — Johnson's way of saying he's not going to do things like his rival "alpha," as he's called Diesel before. But maybe I'm just reading into these comments too much?
In recent years, we've seen other big franchises kill off major heroes to give a sense of closure to their arcs and provide an out for the stars playing those heroes (who had made no secret in the press of wanting to be done with their characters). I'm thinking of two specific examples here: Iron Man is one, but another is more recent.
If they killed off Hobbs, that would give him a definitive ending, but it would also rather conflict with the idea of Hobbs walking off into the sunset (unless Johnson is just speaking in extremely loose metaphors). Johnson is already the type of image-conscious actor to have a contract stipulating how much he gets beaten up onscreen, so it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine him having another clause stipulating that he can never die.
Will Hobbs have a happy ending, or no ending at all other than the one we've already seen? Time will tell.