Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has made it clear that he will not return to the Fast & Furious franchise despite a recent public invitation to him by Vin Diesel, lead actor and producer of the franchise.
While speaking to CNN, Johnson said that the franchise and the people involved have his best wishes, but he will not come back.
“I told [Diesel] directly that I would not be returning to the franchise. I was firm yet cordial with my words and said that I would always be supportive of the cast and always root for the franchise to be successful, but that there was no chance I would return,” he said.
He added, “Vin’s recent public post was an example of his manipulation. I didn’t like that he brought up his children in the post, as well as Paul Walker’s death. Leave them out of it. We had spoken months ago about this and came to a clear understanding.”
Johnson entered the franchise with 2011’s Fast Five as an agent of the Diplomatic Security Service. He reprised the role in 2013’s Fast & Furious 6, 2015’s Furious 7 (2015) and 2017’s The Fate of the Furious.
The fans did not know what was going on behind the scenes. But the feud became public when Dwayne Johnson wrote a now-deleted Instagram post in 2016.
The post read, “Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don’t. The ones that don’t are too chicken s***t to do anything about it anyway. Candy asses. When you watch this movie next April and it seems like I’m not acting in some of these scenes and my blood is legit boiling — you’re right.”
While Johnson refused to do F9, he did star in the spinoff movie Hobbs & Shaw.
Earlier this year, Vin Diesel said that the reason for the enmity between them was because of the “tough love” he was giving to Johnson to bring out his best performance.
Johnson had responded to the comments in a Vanity Fair interview by saying he laughed when he read them.
