After Tyrese Gibson blasted him for allegedly being the reason for 'Fast 9' getting postponed, The Rock announces he will star in the 2019 spin-off focusing on Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw.
- Oct 10, 2017
AceShowbiz - Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson finally confirms he will star in "Fast and Furious" spin-off with Jason Statham. The wrestler-turned-actor took to Instagram on Monday, October 9 to tell his fans, "Daddy's gotta back to work," confirming that he would be reprising his role as Luke Hobbs in the untitled Fast and Furious spin-off focusing on his character and Staham's Deckard Shaw.
"Pumped to expand and build out the FAST & FURIOUS universe in a cool, exciting way with our @sevenbucksprod, writer/producer Chris Morgan, producer Hiram Garcia and lead producer and my bigger twin, Neil Moritz," the 45-year-old actor wrote along with a video teasing the release date of July 2019. "Thank you UNIVERSAL STUDIOS for being tremendous partners who see the big picture and for coming to us years ago with this spinoff idea."
"Huge shout to my brother, Jason Statham for the trust and wanting to create and deliver something fresh and bad ass for the fans," he continued. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for this franchise that I've enjoyed droppin' blood and sweat in over the years and my vision is to create greater opportunities for not only my fellow FF cast mates, but for other amazing actors as well who want to be a part of something new and cool."
"I want to use my spinoff platform to create new characters that fans will ultimately love to have fun with in multiple chapters and platforms. Film, TV, Digital, Virtual Reality etc.. the more opportunities we can create the better for the fans. Smart business," he said, concluding, "Let's have some FUN and to quote, Hobbs the boss, if you don't like it, we're happy to beat that ass like a Cherokee drum. #HOBBS #SevenBucksProds #NewOpportunities #CandyAssesNeedNotApply JULY 2019."
The post came just days after Tyrese Gibson blasted The Rock for allegedly being the reason for "Fast and Furious 9" getting postponed. Taking to Twitter, the Roman Pearce depicter dubbed the former wrestler "the real selfish #CandyA**" and accused him of "[breaking] up the fast family."
Universal has pushed back the ninth film for a year, from April 19, 2019 to April 10, 2020. The spin-off, meanwhile, is set to open in the U.S. on July 26, 2019. No other information regarding the two projects is available as of now, except that Justin Lin is expected to direct the ninth film.
