Hot on the heels of the release of that wonderful trailer for DEADPOOL 2 comes the news that its director, David Leitch, has emerged as the current frontrunner to helm the FAST & FURIOUS spin-off featuring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. It's obviously not a sure bet that he'll walk away with the gig just yet, but Universal would be wise to secure the talents of the man behind JOHN WICK, ATOMIC BLONDE, and DEADPOOL 2.
As mentioned above, the spin-off will be centered around Dwayne Johnson's Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw, and although it's not known just what sort of hijinks the pair will get up to, you can bet that there will be plenty of over-the-top action, knock-out brawls, and an excess of shimmering flesh. Chris Morgan, who has penned every installment of the FAST & FURIOUS saga since the third film, turned in his final draft of the script earlier this year. Dwayne Johnson has been in conversations with the studio about a potential spin-off since the release of FAST & FURIOUS 6, but it wasn't until THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS was released that it was decided that the spin-off would feature Johnson and Statham. Johnson has previously teased that they've got "a lot of surprises" in store and that some "big stars" have been circling the project.
What do you think? Is David Leitch be the right choice to helm the first FAST & FURIOUS spin-off?
Although it's certainly exciting to see the series grow beyond the core saga, especially with two fan-favourite characters, not everyone was pleased by the choice to move forward, which meant delaying the ninth FAST & FURIOUS film. Tyrese Gibson, who plays Roman Pearce in the series, took to Instagram with some harsh words for Dwayne Johnson, even threatening that he wouldn't appear in the ninth film if Johnson did. Although Gibson later buried his beef with Johnson, it will be interesting to see how well they get along together once production on FAST & FURIOUS 9 gets underway. "At the end of the day, the only thing I want to do is make a great movie for the fans," Johnson said. "I never ever get wrapped up in the sludge of the bulls— that can be connected at times to a franchise. So I never get dragged into it. I never respond to any of that."
The FAST & FURIOUS spin-off is set to hit theaters on July 26, 2019.
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