The ninth installment in the popular The Fast And The Furious film series won’t be out until 2020, but it looks like this cast is going to generate enough drama to keep us entertained until then.
This week, Tyrese Gibson, who plays Roman Pearce in the films, is slamming Dwayne Johnson, who plays Luke Hobbs. Why?
Because Dwayne Johnson accepted a spinoff which Tyrese feels delayed production of the 9th film … and was a betrayal of the entire cast!
Tyrese taking swipes at Dwayne Johnson is hardly the first time that the men of the Fash & Furious franchise have let their drama spill out into the public.
Dwayne Johnson, who was not in the series at the beginning, took to social media to slam his Fast 8 costars in an epic rant.
This is a guy who gives off a “cuddly” image to his fans, but he was not only exposing the on-set drama to the public, but also bashing unnamed male costars.
It was quickly obvious that Dwayne’s not-so-subtle rant was targeted at costar Vin Diesel.
Which … might be the first time, in our recollection, that anyone has ever publicly had a problem with Vin Diesel. He’s just a very buff nerd with a deep voice. This is the guy who taught Dame Judi Dench how to play Dungeons and Dragons.
Vin Diesel’s response was very mellow and honestly pretty vague, which really fits his brand. He’s not really Riddick, he just plays him in films.
The feud between these two beefcake actors has been going strong for a while now.
And Tyrese is very decidedly on Vin Diesel’s side. Especially now that Dwayne Johnson has accepted a role to star in a spin-off.
In an Instagram post, Tyrese Gibson shared his thoughts about the direction of the Fast & Furious franchise … and whose fault it was.
“Diversity, love, multi ethnic worldwide multi generational, United Nations, One Race, Fast Family…… Until Dewayne showed up.”
That sounds like an adaptation of the opening lines to Avatar: The Last Airbender, right?
“I guess this whole time he had a problem cause he wasn’t the ONLY ONE on the movie poster……”
Ouch.
“….. I guess dreams do come true congratulations to @hhgarcia41 and @therock you guys are just amazing you really broke up the #FastFamily”
Hiram Garcia is also joining Dwayne Johnson in the spin-off.
“I tried to warn you guys… You thought I was hating…… I was simply fighting to keep the family together what makes us great is when you see us all TOGETHER we don’t fly solo…..”
Ensemble casts can make for the best storytelling.
“#MyLastPost today….. I got 3 years of venting on this clown – They offered but YOU didn’t have to agree with a solo #HobbsMovie”
If he has three years of venting built up, we imagine that he’ll have more to say in the coming days … and years, actually.
“#OriginalFastFamily we salute you and stand on your shoulders #VinDiesel #PaulWalker #RobCohen #RomanTej were offered a spin off we TURNED IT DOWN!!!”
Invoking the late Paul Walker’s name might be a bit much, but Paul Walker was very close friends with Vin Diesel.
Now, we don’t know if Dwayne Johnson actually had a prima donna issue with being part of an ensemble cast instead of playing the lead.
He does tend to project a larger than life image, and we’re not just talking about how swole he is.
Tyrese may genuinely believe that Dwayne Johnson’s motivations are egomaniacal, but that doesn’t make it true.
And in all fairness we should point out that some of Dwayne’s supporters have argued that Vin Diesel turned down his own similar offer because they weren’t offering him enough money, not out of loyalty.
We … don’t know that this is the case. That doesn’t really fit Vin Diesel’s brand or personality at all.
But we felt like we should mention that counter-argument anyway.
For his part, Vin Diesel simply shared a photo of himself with Tyrese and Paul Walker.
Vin captioned that photo: “Brotherhood.”
It’s not a direct response, sure, but it definitely seems like it’s a vague endorsement of Tyrese’s intentions if not necessarily of all of his words.
That’s very much Vin Diesel’s style.
All of this makes us wonder — is Vin Diesel going to have more time to produce his Riddick franchise TV series and more Riddick movies since Fast 9 has been pushed back and Vin didn’t accept the spin-off?
Sorry, but we’ve got to look for the silver lining in all of this.
