The Fast and Furious franchise has been a source of celebration, entertainment, and the rebuilding of values of love, friendship, loyalty, and above all family. But in recent years, all of the star power and the legacy of the IP that has been around since the beginning of the new century has been diluted with controversies to the point of being insulting to the entire cast, not simply the participants of the said quarrel. Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson have both remained essential parts of Fast and Furious and the absence of the latter from the finale is a fact that the former simply cannot let go of.
Vin Diesel v The Rock: A Brief Timeline of their Feud
On August 2016, the feud officially began when The Rock indirectly bashed some of his co-stars from the Fast and Furious franchise calling them “chicken sh*t” and “candy a**es.” The years that followed have been a sine graph of to-and-fro between him and Vin Diesel as both reignited and conceded their differences, making it hard for the public to miss since most of it occurred via monologues on social media platforms and public interviews. Vin Diesel later clarified the basis of the feud in an interview to Men’s Health in June, 2021:
“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 to where it needed to be.”
A month later, in July 21, 2021, The Rock finally drove the nail in the coffin regarding the 5-year feud when he stated to The Hollywood Reporter,
“I laughed and I laughed hard. I think everyone had a laugh at that. And I’ll leave it at that. And that I’ve wished them well. I wish them well on Fast 9. And I wish them the best of luck on Fast 10 and Fast 11 and the rest of the Fast & Furious movies they do that will be without me.”
The 2019 spin-off Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw featuring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham as the titular leads was the last film that The Rock appeared in for the franchise as Luke Hobbs.
Fast and Furious Franchise Mourns The Rock’s Luke Hobbs
Although Dwayne Johnson’s character is intricately involved with the Fast and Furious family, the actor has remained adamantly absent from the frontier of the franchise since the 2016 dispute. As was made innately clear by Vin Diesel multiple times, the role of Hobbs is crucial to close out the Fast and Furious films. However, the feud which originated during filming of the eighth installment of the franchise still soars high on adrenaline to this day, especially after Diesel’s “manipulation”, as stated by The Rock after the former “brought up his children… as well as Paul Walker’s death” in a last-ditch attempt to ask the Hobbs actor to return for Fast X —
“My little brother Dwayne… the time has come. The world awaits the finale of Fast 10… you must show up, do not leave the franchise idle you have a very important role to play. Hobbs can’t be played by no other. I hope that you rise to the occasion and fulfill your destiny.”
Recently, an insider revealed details about Vin Diesel’s side of the argument and stated how his psyche has played into the online post that left The Rock massively annoyed.
“Vin tries so hard to be the man that other men want to be and women want to be with, but he’ll always be in The Rock’s shadow. His ego is extremely fragile and he can’t shake the feeling that Dwayne’s the better man. The sad thing is this feud isn’t about two guys, it’s mostly a one-sided thing and it’s all on Vin, who’s become obsessed with Dwayne.”
Clearly, The Rock is having none of it and it will be a sorry sight if the feud continues to linger even after Dwayne Johnson’s scathing reply to Diesel’s below the belt attempt when the latter tried to guilt his former co-star into returning for the final saga of their journey.
Fast X premieres on 19 May 2023.
Source: Radar Online
