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The Fate of the Furious is currently taking the box office by storm, earning itself the biggest opening weekend ever, beating out Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The eighth movie in the franchise, The Fate of the Furious sees Vin Diesel, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, and Jason Statham, all reprising their roles, with the addition of Charlize Theron to the cast, as the villain, Cipher.
One of the main focuses of the movie, is the team-up between Johnson’s Luke Hobbs, and Statham’s Decker Shaw. Always rivals in previous Fast & Furious movies, the pair have no choice but to work together to bring down Cipher, who has somehow convinced Dom (Diesel) to do her bidding.
Following on from rumors of a feud between Diesel and Johnson, and with only 2 more movies in the Fast and Furious franchise, it is now reported by Deadline that a spin-off for Johnson and Statham’s characters could be in the works at Universal. Details are scarce, and it should be stressed that neither star has signed on for anything, but the possibility of some kind of spin-off has been floating around for some time, just because the franchise is so popular.
If the project does come to fruition, it could well mean we’ll see a Hobbs and Shaw spin-off before Fast and Furious 9 hits theaters. The Wrap have revealed that a deleted scene from The Fate of the Furious set things up for a spin-off, when Hobbs and Shaw faced off against each other before realizing they should be working together. According to a source, the brief scene ended with the line; “Why are we fighting? We should be working together instead of for that idiot.”
Of course, “that idiot” refers to Diesel’s character, Dom. According to a source, the scene was filmed without his knowledge, and when he found out about it, he demanded it was pulled. With his sister serving as executive producer, that soon happened.
So maybe a spin-off won’t happen, if Diesel has a say in it, but Johnson and Statham had great chemistry, and it seems wise for Universal to capitalize on that. Variety reports that the addition of Theron to the franchise has further cemented the spin-off plans, as they would like her character to be involved, too. Certainly Cipher is set up as the big bad going forward into subsequent Fast and Furious films.
As yet, with no script, and no talent locked in, this is nothing more than a very strong possibility, but watch this space, as things could soon change. The Fate of the Furious is now in theaters.
