Caution, spoilers: Dwayne Johnson will appear in Fast & Furious 10. But there will not be a second new appearance in the action series. That’s what Henry Cavill taught me.
The most boring thing about the Fast & Furious series is the cars. There’s so much drama happening behind the scenes that Vin Diesel’s action saga has now become a mixture of Succession and Jersey Shore. The latest revelation? Dwayne Johnson’s Hobbs is returning to the franchise fold. The post-credit scene from Part 10 suggests a major role in Fast & Furious 11. Fiddlesticks, I say. Just like Henry Cavill as Superman, there won’t be much of a return.
Dwayne Johnson was in dire need of the post-credit scene from Fast & Furious 10
For those who don’t understand the significance of the post-credit scene from Fast & Furious 10, here’s the most important observation: The Rock comes crawling back to Diesel whimpering. Like a trained dog, artfully delivering his trained catchphrase and holding his face up to the camera for petting.
And that’s after one of the most exciting, funny, childish Hollywood feuds in a long time. The evolution of the Johnson-Diesel dispute goes back to Fast & Furious 8. Diesel compared himself to Italian master director Federico Fellini (Eight and a Half), Johnson called him an idiot. In the end, it all sounded very final. So why is The Rock returning now after all? What happened?
In two words, Black Adam. The extremely expensive superhero blockbuster, planned over 10 years, was supposed to make Johnson simultaneously the innovator and main hero of a new DC era. It was a move that would have secured his retirement. On par with Superman in a billion-dollar franchise that makes Fast & Furious look like Hot Wheels.
Dwayne Johnson in Black Adam
But the movie was bad, everyone knew it, and in the end even Johnson couldn’t gloss over the fiasco. For the first time in years, he had to accept a really ugly flop (via The Numbers ), and then on a prestige project. Humility was the order of the day, money and dignity were at stake, and suddenly mortal enemy Vin Diesel didn’t look so mortal anymore.
