Dwayne Johnson Taking Control Of Fast And Furious Franchise?
Dwayne Johnson might be setting his sights big with the idea that he could take over the Fast & Furious franchise at some point
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With the Fast & Furious franchise set to go about, possibly, major changes in the next couple of years, it makes sense that others might be in the mix to vie for acting and production control over the franchise moving forward. Could that person be Dwayne Johnson? Insider Daniel Richtman has it that the superstar has expressed interest in producing and having creative control over his part of the Fast & Furious universe. It makes a lot of sense considering the actor’s standing in Hollywood circles and massive stardom.
Now, this is just a rumor for right now and we don’t have firm news on what will happen with Dwayne Johnson in the Hobbs & Shaw arm of the franchise in future iterations. But it’s clear that the franchise as a whole is set to undergo major changes after the next film in the core Vin Diesel-led part of the franchise. There’s word that the 10th installment will be the last for him and will bring that narrative arc to a close. Where the franchise goes after that remains to be seen, but there’s been word that Hobbs & Shaw would be getting a sequel at some point.
Dwayne Johnson taking over this part of Fast & Furious would also lend some credence to ongoing rumors that he and Diesel have not gotten along during past productions and that’s why the franchise ended up splintering. Johnson didn’t take part in the upcoming F9 which is hitting theaters today. Based on early international box office numbers, that one is headed for a big payday, already eclipsing its $200 million budget before even opening in domestic theaters.
Meanwhile, Dwayne Johnson had massive success with his Fast & Furious team-up spin-off film when he and Jason Statham took that story in a different direction with Hobbs & Shaw. Back in 2019 it scored more than $760 million at the box office and left the opening for plenty of more stories where those two were concerned. There was even some internal strife among Fast & Furious folks that the Johnson-led film ended up coming out before F9 because of Johnson’s packed filming schedule. In this way, he seemed to take precedent over the core franchise.
Vin Diesel recently explained some of the reasoning behind some of the beef between he and Dwayne Johnson when he described giving the former wrestler “tough love” on the set of Fast & Furious back in 2018. He seemed to take credit for not only causing a rift between the two but also for helping Johnson getting the character up to snuff. It’s clear that Johnson saw it completely differently when, at the time, he posted to Instagram his dissatisfaction with Diesel’s treatment of others on the set.
As for Dwayne Johnson, whether he takes over control of Hobbs & Shaw remains to be seen. He’s got plenty on his plate as it is. He’s currently filming the highly-anticipated Black Adam which will be his first foray into the superhero universe for DC. And before that, he has Jungle Cruise set to come out later this summer. It seems like at this point in his career, Johnson is able to take on any role he wants and if he’s going to lead this franchise into the future, then that’s going to be the case.
