Fast & Furious fans rejoice! A spin-off movie is officially in the works with Deadpool 2 director David Leitch tapped to helm.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Leitch will direct Hobbs and Shaw (rumored titled), which will see Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (Luke Hobbs) and Jason Statham (Deckard Shaw) reprise their roles from the action series.
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In addition to the upcoming Deadpool sequel, Leitch also directed Atomic Blonde and co-directed John Wick. He had long been reported to be the front-runner for the film, due mostly to his keen eye for raw, intense stunts and action sequences.
The film, which is technically untitled at this point, will be written by Chris Morgan, who has written six other Fast & Furious films, including the most recent, The Fate of the Furious.
While the Hobbs and Shaw film is finally set to be an official entry into the Fast & Furious franchise, there’s a chance it could be the last time we see Johnson in the series at all.
According to JoBlo, Johnson was recently quoted as saying, “Vin [Diesel] and I had a few discussions, including an important face-to-face in my trailer. And what I came to realize is that we have a fundamental difference in philosophies on how we approach moviemaking and collaborating.”
“It took me some time, but I’m grateful for that clarity. Whether we work together again or not,” he continued before adding, “But I wish him all the best, and I harbor no ill will there, just because of the clarity we have. [laughs] Actually, you can erase that last part about ‘no ill will.’ We’ll just keep it with the clarity.”
Johnson’s comment is likely not what fans want to hear, but is also not entirely surprising either, considering he and Diesel had a reportedly heated feud on the set of the last film, Fate of the Furious.
The tension between them is rumored to have gotten so bad that they hated even filming scenes together, and Johnson set the rumors aflame by posting on social media about unprofessional “candy a—es” on the set of the film.
After the film had wrapped, he spoke with journalists and refused to back down from his comments.
“I was very clear with what I said. I’ve been in the game a long time,” he said during the interview. “Would Universal [Pictures] have preferred that didn’t happen? Sure, we talked about it. The irony is after that and as they do their tracking and all their analysis, the interest [in Fast 8] shot through the roof to a whole other level.”
On the heels of that interview, Johnson put out a post on Instagram where he spoke openly about “respecting every person, their time and their value when they step on to” his set “or partner with our production company.”
“And like with any team – that’s a family – there’s gonna be conflict. Family is gonna have differences of opinion and fundamental core beliefs. To me, conflict can be a good thing, when its followed by great resolution,” he added. “I was raised on healthy conflict and welcome it. And like any family, we get better from it. At the end of the day me and [Fast 8] co-stars all agree on the most important thing: Delivering an incredible movie to the world.”
