An old death-defying video of Fast & Furious stuntman Joe Watts has resurfaced in the wake of his recent hospitalization following an accident on the set of Fast & Furious 9 earlier this month. As Watts, 31, remains in critical condition in a London hospital following a 30-foot fall on his head, an impressive video of him is catching fans’ eyes.
#TeamCA Joe Watts showing Captain Jack Sparrow how a real #Pirate tricks #creativesdoitbetter pic.twitter.com/8svfQoSaO5
— Creative Academy (@Creat_Academy) August 15, 2015
The footage, filmed in August 2015, shows Watts performing in Pirates of Skeleton Bay Stunt Show at Legoland in Windsor, standing at the top of a tall lighthouse with another performer before the pair pretend to headbutt each other and then leap backward into the water. The show was a daily performance at the amusement park, and shared on Twitter by the Creative Academy in Slough, Berkshire, where he worked as a gymnastics teacher for five years, according to the Daily Mail.
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Production of Fast & Furious 9 at Warner Bros. studio in Hertfordshire shut down temporarily on Monday after a safety wire reportedly failed to catch Watts from a leap off a balcony and he plunged toward the ground, landing on his head.
“He was meant to be left dangling below the balcony via the wire and then lowered slowly to the ground, but he plunged to the ground and landed on his head,” a source told The Wrap.
Watts, who was performing the stunt in star Vin Diesel’s place, reportedly was placed in a medically-induced coma at the hospital. Diesel reportedly “was seen on set seconds after” and “looked ashen, totally in shock and blinking back tears. He saw what happened.”
Watts’ fiancée, Tilly Powell, spoke out on social media and wrote that her “heart is shattered.”
“I love him so much. He has all his friends and family by his side to get him through this,” she wrote on Facebook, adding that Watts had suffered a serious head injury and was in an induced coma but that he is “stable and being monitored closely throughout the night.”
“Tilly is absolutely devastated but she has known the risks that were always involved,” a family member said. “She grew up with a father who was a stuntman and has followed the same career. She knew that they always faced risks on any dangerous stunt. Tilly is at the hospital with Joe and like everyone else just praying that Joe will pull through.”
“Joe is one of the nicest men you could meet,” they added. “Everyone in the family loves him and he is devoted to Tilly.”
Powell is also a stunt double and was working on The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard on another set in London when she learned of Watts’ accident. Previous projects Watts has worked on include Game of Thrones, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Jurassic World, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Production on Fast & Furious 9 resumed on Tuesday.
Fast & Furious 9 is the next upcoming installment in the Fast franchise and stars Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, John Cena, Diesel, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Helen Mirren, Michelle Rodriguez, Anna Sawai and Charlize Theron. The movie will follow the spinoff Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, which stars Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham and will be released on Aug. 2. Fast & Furious 9 is expected to hit theaters on May 22, 2020.
