Dwayne Johnson’s Hobbs Starring in New ‘Fast & Furious’ Spin-Off Movie

Dwayne Johnson to Return as Luke Hobbs for new ‘Fast & Furious’ Spin-Off Movie Set Before The Next Main Film

This is reportedly not a sequel to ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ but will instead focus on the lawman on his own, as announced by Johnson himself.

'Black Adam's Dwayne Johnson at CinemaCon 2022. Photos by Eric Charbonneau.

Looks like Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel have officially buried the hatchet –– and not in each other’s backs, as some worried they might at the height of their presumed beef.

The Wrap is reporting, since backed up by a video from Johnson himself, that Luke Hobbs, the burly lawman character from several of the ‘Fast & Furious’ entries, and spin-off ‘Hobbs & Shaw’, will be back for another solo entry.

This isn’t the biggest revelation, since –– spoiler alert for anyone who has not seen ‘Fast X’ –– the character was featured in an end-credit coda scene for that film, which saw Hobbs lured into a trap by the villainous Dante, played by Jason Momoa.

Fast X

"The end of the road begins."

PG-132 hr 22 minMay 19th, 2023

Showtimes & Tickets

Watch Fast X Online

And while the scene led most to speculate that it meant Hobbs would be back for the next entry (three are rumored as a finale trilogy), it appears he’ll be pulling double duty and doing both the new spin-off and that next movie. We’ll wait and see quite how well the Rock/Vin dynamic has been repaired before guaranteeing he’ll rejoin the team fully.

(L to R) Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson in 'Fast Five,' directed by Justin Lin.

What happened between The Rock and Vin Diesel?

Debates still rage as to whether the falling out between Johnson and Diesel was a legitimate argument or a manufactured rivalry designed (successfully) to generate press on the matter.

The two actors clashed while working together on previous ‘Fast & Furious’ movies, with Johnson taking issue with Diesel’s work ethic. The feud between the two stars escalated in 2021 when Diesel used his personal social media channels to publicly ask Johnson to reconsider his decision to leave.

Johnson, annoyed by the tactic, made his own public statement that he would not be returning to the franchise, an announcement since belied (again, spoiler alert) by his brief moment at the end of ‘Fast X’ and now this new film.

(L to R) Vin Diesel, Charlize Theron, Michelle Rodriguez, Dwayne Johnson, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, and Jason Statham in 'The Fate of the Furious.'

What do we know about the new movie?

Very little is known about the new movie right now, besides the presence of Johnson in the lead and regular ‘Fast’ veteran writer Chris Morgan on script duty (we can picture him already hard at work on ridiculously macho dialogue and the number of ways that cars/buildings/giraffes can explode. Okay, probably not giraffes).

There’s no sign of Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw (the other half of ‘Hobbs & Shaw’) in the announcement, so for now we presume he won’t appear beyond a potential cameo.

There certainly seems to be more momentum around the franchise after the ninth seemed to suffer a combination of franchise fatigue and pandemic-influence nerves about going to the cinema.

‘Fast X’ opened No. 1 around the world earlier this month with $320 million and became the second biggest global opening of 2023. The film opened No. 1 in all markets where it was released, including China, and crossed $500 million in its second weekend.

Whether it ends up called ‘Fast X Part II’, the next main entry is gearing up with returning director Louis Leterrier for a potential 2025 release date.