The feud between Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson began with rumors and then spilled out into the open when Johnson himself posted an photo to Instagram at the end of shooting on The Fate of the Furious with a caption about how certain unnamed “male co-stars” on the film were, in fact, “candy asses.” After that, Johnson left the Fast & Furious franchise to start his own Hobbs & Shaw spinoff series, and has since made it very clear that he would not return for further films in the saga. (“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,” Johnson said back in July.)
The current plan is for two more Fast & Furious movies to be shot back-to-back to finally conclude the massive franchise. It’s not hard to envision a scenario where Diesel’s Dom and his usual crew of drivers get into an impossible scrape in the next movie, only to be saved in the big finale by the triumphant return of Johnson’s Agent Hobbs. And apparently Diesel himself envisions something similar.
Despite his ongoing feud with Johnson — and Johnson’s public declarations that he was done with the franchise — Diesel has posted a message of his own on Instagram, this one asking Johnson to “rise to the occasion” and fulfill his “destiny” by appearing in “the finale of Fast 10.”
“My little brother Dwayne,” he begins, “the time has come … Legacy awaits. I told you years ago that I was going to fulfill my promise to Pablo. I swore that we would reach and manifest the best Fast in the finale that is 10! I say this out of love… but you must show up, do not leave the franchise idle you have a very important role to play.”
Diesel might think this will work, but I have my doubts. For one thing he calls Johnson “my little brother Dwayne” while Johnson himself has made it very clear he’s not a fan of Diesel referring to the two of them as brothers. (Much less his little brother.) In a recent Vanity Fair profile, for example, Johnson replied to another instance of Diesel calling them brothers with the comment “I have one big brother and it’s my half brother. And that’s it.” But I guess we’ll see. If Johnson did return for Fast 10, he’d surely get an enormous payday. Maybe that will be enough incentive to do it?
Fast & Furious 10 is currently scheduled to open in theaters on April 7, 2023. By coincidence, Johnson’s next movie, Red Notice, comes out on Netflix next week. It includes a joke about Vin Diesel.
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