Johnson done with Fast franchise; “Laughed hard” over Diesel’s comments

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

It would appear that Dwayne Johnson views his much-publicized Fast feud with Vin Diesel a bit differently than the Dominic Toretto actor following Diesel's comments during an interview with "Men's Health" back in June about his interpretation of how things went down between the two.

If you recall, Diesel was asked about the feud last month while promoting Fast 9 and the actor implied that the "feud" was actually a technique to elicit a better acting performance from the former pro wrestler. Diesel said at the time, "I could give a lot of tough love. Not Felliniesque, but I would do anything I'd have to do in order to get performances in anything I'm producing." 

Fast Forward to now. Dwayne Johnson is out promoting Jungle Cruise with his co-star Emily Blunt and during an interview with "The Hollywood Reporter", Johnson was asked what he thought about Diesel's comments, and here is where he had to say:

"I laughed and I laughed hard. I think everyone had a laugh at that. And I'll leave it at that. And 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."

Perhaps the best part about this exchange is that Emily Blunt is sitting in on this interview and it's clear that the actress and Johnson have become great friends since doing Jungle Cruise and heading out to promote. Even Blunt chimes in by sarcastically saying, "Just thank God he was there. Thank God. He carried you through that." 

The feud between Johnson and Diesel went public when Johnson posted to his Instagram page about the professionalism of the Fate of the Furious crew and his female co-stars while stating some of the men were "candy asses" who didn't act like "true professionals." It was later reported that his issues were with Diesel and Johnson later confirmed that they shot very few scenes together in Fate of the Furious due to rift. It seemed like fences were mended when Johnson posted on Instagram back in 2019 after the success of the Fast & Furious spin-off, Hobbs & Shaw. It would appear that Diesel's recent comments were a bit of a headscratcher to Johnson.

Diesel has previously stated that Johnson's character Hobbs was a "tough character to embody" and that it took a lot of work to get the actor to play him as Diesel wanted. Diesel said, "As a producer to say, 'Okay, we're going to take Dwayne Johnson, who's associated with wrestling, and wer'e going to force this cinematic world, audience members, to regard his character as someone that they don't know. That's something that I'm proud of, that aesthetic. That took a lot of work. We had to get there and sometimes, at that time, I could give a lot of tough love."

Does this mean Dwayne Johnson won't be in Fast 10 or Fast 11? Johnson and Tyrese finally start getting along and now Diesel has to go and think he's running some kind of acting school on the Fast & Furious set. I'm poking fun here but it seems like Diesel's perception of the matter is far different from Johnson's but I guess it's best that he just laughed at it because he probably thinks the whole thing is just ridiculous.

What are yOUR thoughts on Dwayne Johnson's comments regarding Vin Diesel's perception of their Fast & Furious feud?