Vin Diesel Calls on ‘My Little Brother’ Dwayne Johnson to Finally End Their Feud and Return for Fast and Furious 10
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Vin Diesel is calling on Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to end their feud and return to the Fast & Furious team for the franchise’s final installment.
Diesel took to Instagram on Sunday night to post a picture of himself as Dominic Toretto and Johnson as Luke Hobbs in Fast Five, pleading with his “little brother Dwayne” to return to the franchise:
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“My little brother Dwayne… the time has come. The world awaits the finale of Fast 10. As you know, my children refer to you as Uncle Dwayne in my house. There is not a holiday that goes by that they and you don’t send well wishes… but the time has come,” he wrote in the caption. “Legacy awaits.”
Diesel went on to reference a promise he made to Paul Walker, who portrayed Brian O’Conner for the first seven films before he died in a car crash up in 2013.
“I told you years ago that I was going to fulfill my promise to Pablo,” Diesel wrote, calling Walker by his nickname. “I swore that we would reach and manifest the best Fast in the finale that is 10! I say this out of love… but you must show up, do not leave the franchise idle you have a very important role to play. Hobbs can’t be played by no other. I hope that you rise to the occasion and fulfill your destiny.”
In a June 2021 issue of Men’s Health, Diesel said that Walker’s pride in Fast & Furious made him want to “protect” the films, revealing that they promised each other that they “would take this franchise and end it at Fast 10.”
Diesel’s feud with Johnson began in 2016 while they were filming The Fate Of The Furious. Johnson posted a since-deleted photo to his Instagram account, in which he went off on his unnamed male co-stars.
“Some (male co-stars) conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don’t,” Johnson wrote, prompting the duo’s costar Michelle Rodriguez to confirm there was tension between the two.
While speaking to Men’s Health in June, Diesel pinned the feud on “tough love” he gave Johnson while filming.
“It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character,” he said. “My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to be. As a producer to say, Okay, we’re going to take Dwayne Johnson, who’s associated with wrestling, and we’re going to force this cinematic world, audience members, to regard his character as someone that they don’t know—Hobbs hits you like a ton of bricks,” he added. 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. Not Felliniesque, but I would do anything I’d have to do in order to get performances in anything I’m producing.”
Johnson later pushed back during an interview with Vanity Fair, saying that they were simply “philosophically two different people” and approached “the business of moviemaking in two very different ways.”
Hopefully, Diesel’s plea will remind Johnson that “You don’t turn your back on family.“
