Why Isnt The Rock Playing Luke Hobbs in Fast and Furious 9?
Why The Rock Is Not in Fast and Furious 9 As Luke Hobbs. Regulars like Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and Tyrese Gibson are joined by recognizable characters from prior films like Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron, and some of the ensemble of Tokyo Drift in Fast & Furious 9. One fan favorite character, however, is missing from the proceedings. Dwayne The Rock Johnson does not appear in The Fast Saga as Luke Hobbs, making it the first movie he has missed in the franchise since being introduced in Fast Five. WARNING: The following contains storyline spoilers for Fast & Furious 9s conclusion. The official reason cited by The Rock is that filming of the film interfered with the promotional tour for his spinoff picture, Hobbs & Shaw, starring Jason Statham. As of now, were not in Fast 9 because theyre getting ready to start shooting, Johnson stated in a joint interview with MTV News with Statham. But you never know with Fast 10 and further down the road.  Despite this, Statham actually does appear in the new movie. As well as appearing in a flashback to the events of Hans (Sung Kang) near death in Tokyo Drift, Statham appears in the post-credit sequence of the movie, in a scene that sets up the future of the franchise. However, the actors participation in The Fast Saga is likely to have been hampered by a number of other scheduling issues. Filming on F9 began in May 2019, around the same time that The Rock was set to begin filming Red Notice, his Netflix thriller in which he co-stars with fellow Fast and Furious alum Gal Gadot. Production on this film was delayed until fall, but as a producer, Johnson would have been involved heavily in getting filming back on track amid the pandemic (the film resumed shooting in fall 2020). While Red Notice was on hiatus, Johnson was also working on his NBC biopic series, Young Rock. The Rocks absence from Fast and Furious 9 comes after he famously criticized his co-stars on his Facebook page. In 2017, in a now deleted post, he wrote: my female co-stars are always amazing and I love em. My male co-stars however are a different story. Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others dont. The ones that dont are too chicken s*** to do anything about it anyway. Candy asses. When you watch this movie next April and it seems like Im not acting in some of these scenes and my blood is legit boilingyoure right.  This was seen by many as a dig at Diesel, amid reports of a feud between them. Diesel has since said that if there was a feud between them, it is over. In a recent Mens Health interview, Diesel stated that his tactics with Johnson were to bring the right performance out of him. He said: It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character. My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to beThat took a lot of work. We had to get there and sometimes, at that time, I could give a lot of tough love but I would do anything Id have to do in order to get performances in anything Im producing.  Johnson also seemed ready to bury the hatchet after the success of Hobbs & Shaw. In a post expressing thanks for the movies $750 million-plus box office, he ended by saying, also lastly, but not least, want to thank brother Vin for your support of Hobbs & Shaw.  In a recent CinemaBlend interview, long-time franchise director Justin Lin said of The Rock returning for Fast and Furious 10, so many of the conversations I have is about characters that are not even in there, but are still, obviously, they are living and breathing in this universe. On this one, when I came back, I was thinking a lot about Hobbs and Shaw, and all of the other characters. I never think of them as being gone, for sure.  Fast and Furious 9 is in theaters in the U.S. on Friday, June 25.