Pour out a Corona for Dwayne Johnson, who announced this week that he’d left the Fast and Furious family. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Jungle Cruise star said he wished the Fast Family good luck with the last two action movies in the franchise but added they could do them without him.
It seems recent comments by Vin Diesel about Johnson’s performance in Fast 5 have reignited the embers of the pair’s historic feud. Speaking to Men’s Health around the release of Fast 9, Diesel said he had to use some “tough love” to get Johnson’s performance to where it needed to be. When asked about these comments by THR, Johnson said: “I laughed and I laughed hard, I think everyone had a laugh at that. And I’ll leave it at 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,” he continued. At this point, Johnson’s Jungle Cruise co-star Emily Blunt couldn’t help having some fun at Dwayne’s expense, saying, “Just thank God [Diesel] was there. Thank God. He carried you through that.”
Fast 9 director Justin Lin had previously said he was considering bringing Johnson back for the final two films in the Fast Saga. “So many of the conversations I have is about characters that are not even in there but are still, obviously, they are living and breathing in this universe,” Lin told MovieWeb. “On this one, when I came back, I was thinking a lot about Hobbs and Shaw, and all of the other characters. I never think of them as being gone, for sure.”
The friction between Johnson and Diesel is well documented. The pair had a public falling out during the filming of Fate of the Furious. This culminated in Johnson calling one of his male co-stars (suspected to be Diesel) a “candy-ass” on Instagram, and Michelle Rodriguez later confirmed that the pair had argued.
It was thought the pair had mended their friendship since then, with Diesel congratulating his onscreen rival on the success of Hobbs and Shaw. At the same time, Johnson thanked Diesel for supporting the spin-off. Unfortunately, though, it seems Diesel’s latest comments have reopened some old wounds.
The adventure movie, Jungle Cruise is set for release on July 30.