Dwayne Johnson checks Vin Diesel’s Fast And Furious olive branch into Smackdown Hotel
The Rock says that there’s “no chance” he’ll return for Fast 10
Aux News Dwayne Johnson
In what still might be the most convincing series of pro-wrestling promos in Hollywood history, former WWE World Champion and star of something called Red Notice, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is continuing his feud with Vin “Federico Fellini” Diesel. For roughly the last five years, the pair have engaged in what we at The A.V. Club refer to as “#candyassgate” because The Rock once called Vin a “candyass.”
With the final two Fast And Furious movies zipping ahead on an endless zipline used by John Cena to whisk across Edinburgh rooftops, Diesel would like to get the family back together for one last ride. But, unfortunately, he’s dealing with one of our generation’s great heels, who’s going to milk his return for all it’s worth—unless, of course, he’s being honest and will sit out the Fast finale.
Speaking to CNN, Johnson explained all the different ways he told Diesel he wouldn’t be returning (“directly — and privately.”)
“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,” Johnson said. “I privately spoke with my partners at Universal as well, all of whom were very supportive as they understand the problem.”
For his part, Diesel offered fans of family-centric automotive heist films a glimmer of hope, offering an olive branch to his “little brother Dwayne” on Instagram in which he evoked the prophecy which predicted that The Rock “rise to the occasion and fulfill [his] destiny.” Diesel also mentioned that his family missed him and that he promised the late-Paul Walker that Dom and Hobbs “would reach and manifest the best Fast in the finale that is 10!” Recognizing the gravity of the situation, he even started the post “the time has come,” what more could you want?
Well, Uncle Dwayne found the whole thing a little gross, calling it “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,” he said. “We had spoken months ago about this and came to a clear understanding. My goal all along was to end my amazing journey with this incredible Fast & Furious franchise with gratitude and grace. It’s unfortunate that this public dialogue has muddied the waters. Regardless, I’m confident in the Fast universe and its ability to consistently deliver for the audience, and I truly wish my former co-stars and crew members the best of luck and success in the next chapter.”
Johnson might be out of the mainline Fast Saga movies, but he’s still open for all things “Fast And Furious Presents.” In November, he mentioned that he has a great pitch for a Hobbs & Shaw sequel, which is both better than nothing and not exactly what anyone wants. Nevertheless, he imagines it as the “antithesis of what Fast And Furious movies generally are,” which sounds like something.
Either way, we haven’t abandoned hope that this is all hype for the movie and that the stars’ kayfabe reality will lead to a glorious face-off and end with a handshake. If all those [redacted] can get away with lying for a year, then surely the Rock has no problem doing it.
131 Comments
I’m absurdly grateful to this feud for continuing to exist. Hollywood could stand a few more old-fashioned cat fights.
I feel almost the exact opposite. To me, this “feud” is the dumbest thing that I’m occasionally reminded exists. That may be because I’ve never had even the tiniest shred of interest in the Fast and Furious movies.
Actually, it’s because you have this extreme distaste for pro wrestling that is almost palpable. You’d probably like the franchise quite a bit if you weren’t such a wrestlephobe.
I thought my lack of interest in the Fast and the Furious was because I don’t give a shit about fast cars, not anything to do with wrestling.
Well, you thought wrong. I know you so damn well that I figured out who you are just by reading your anonymous posts on AVC. You hate wrestling so much, I can literally watch you turn to an icicle at the mere mention of Koko B Ware and The Bushwackers.
There’s actually very little pop culture I hate anymore. Things I used to hate I’m now just completely indifferent to. Like, it used to annoy me to hear people talk about football or American Idol or whatever. Now I’m able to just tune it out completely. It’s just words entirely divorced entirely from their meanings, like if they were talking about advanced mathematics.
I barely understand pop culture anymore. With a couple minor exceptions, I don’t hate any of it. I just….don’t care about it anymore, I guess. I dont get excited about new shows. I haven’t seen a Doctor Who or any new Star Treks. I lost track of Marvel around Iron Man 2. I still haven’t seen Revenge of the Sith. This place turned into a joke damn near a decade ago and seems to have no intentions of improving. At this point, my pop culture consumption is falling asleep in front of Cheers reruns because I don’t have to actually watch.
I really wanted to rewatch the first episode of Cheers a couple of months ago and next thing you know I’m about halfway through season six. I still give somewhat of a shit about (some) movies and (some) TV, but I lost interest in new music a long time ago.
Not a transphobe huh?
Dont forget to remove my posts after you make screen shots of them, you male coward.
Yep totally not a transphobe…Is this all your buddy is gonna do now?
Bushwhackers. With another H. Sorry to stickle, but spelling it Wackers just always had masturbatory context for me.
I’m not wrestlephobic, I just wish these wrestlers wouldn’t shove their lifestyles down my throat all the time. It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Brett “The Hitman” Hart.
Oh hey Puddingbrain is back to defend transphobes…
You’ll never be a woman. You are nothing more than a mockery of nature’s perfection. Everyone laughs at you behind your back.
I mean, you do you, but this feud is consumable without having to give a shit about the studio products they’re borne from. Hell, I’d argue it ups the ‘wtf’ factor because you have even less frame of reference.
Valid point, I suppose.
Unless you’ve read the books, it’s hard to keep up with the movies, really.
It’s worth mentioning that Chancellor Puddingbrain is a transphobe who whines about “communists”…
He’s actually a close friend of my IRL, not a transphobe, and not someone who unironically complains about communists. What’s more, this conversation has nothing whatsoever to do with either of those things. He’s one of my best friends since fourth grade, not a bigot, not a right-wing nut, and doesn’t deserve to be accosted by an Inspector Javert armed with screenshots everywhere he goes.
It’s also worth mentioned that Laserdork is a shill who clearly gets paid by Gizmodo to harass people. Its also worth mentioning that Laserdock will never actually be a woman, has no womb, and his parents will use his real name when they bury him.
I’m just delighted that Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel are the Bette Davis and Joan Crawford of our era.I can only hope that when they’re both old and the roles aren’t coming in as fast as they once did, we get a schlocky horror movie with them really tormenting the hell out of each other.
“I can only hope that when they’re both old and the roles aren’t coming in as fast as they once did, we get a schlocky horror movie with them really tormenting the hell out of each other.”Oh, yes please.
I have some terrible, terrible news…ETA: Which includes that I am a moron with reading comprehension skills, but still…terrible news.
Bette Davis, no!
It is a nice break from the groping and the raping.
“VIN! DWAYNE! YOU TWO ARE MISSING THE FIGHT! GET YOUR DRESSES ON AND GET IN THERE!”
isn’t this all kayfabe?imagine being a crew member for a production with both vin diesel and the rock. you’ll get worked to death.“
They may have worked themselves into a shoot.
This is such a dumb feud, and I can’t help but love it. And, in this case, I’m with The Rock, in thinking it’s pretty damn low of Vin to invoke Paul Walker to try to guilt him into coming back.
Yeah, saying “Do this because I’m absolutely sure a dead man wants you to” is not the definition of a classy move.
Vin Diesel has evoked Paul Walker many times while promoting the last three F&F films. Obviously it made sense while promoting the 7th film, but it’s been a bit cringey hearing him constantly bring Paul up to say Paul would have wanted these films to be made.The 7th film should have been the end of the story, really.
There’s a story in the F&F movies?
Yes. Not a good one, but yes.
The dumbest part of this is anyone thinking this will be the last Fast and the Furious movie. Paul Walker’s grandkids will be in Fast and the Furious XXX in 30 years.
“But Pop-Pop, all the cars drive themselves now! They’re neither fast nor furious.”
“Eh…WHAT?!”
They could probably milk some mileage out of the whole “autonomous” driving thing. Only people who still know how to drive themselves can navigate the streets without crashing into random stationary objects.
Oh wait, wasn’t that Transformers?
Oh, I’m sure they’ll still be fast and furious even then. Once the cars become alive.
“Slower But Still Irritated”
If you say “Paul Walker” three times in the mirror, DwayneTheRockJohnson appears and calls you a candyass.
His claim that he promised Walker the 10th installment of the franchise, which won’t even be written until nearly 10 years after his death, is especially self-serving and gross.Since this is F&F, I see Diesel in sunglasses, white t-shirt, leather jacket and tight jeans standing tearfully over Walker’s grave and swearing on his children that the final installment will be the defining and unassailable testament to his legacy. I love you, brother.(Walker’s ghost: “Candy-ass.”)
“His claim that he promised Walker the 10th installment of the franchise, which won’t even be written until nearly 10 years after his death, is especially self-serving and gross.”Why, though? How do we know this didn’t happen, and especially how does a random commenter speak for Paul Walker more than Vin Diesel could?If there’s a spectrum of people entitled to speak for Paul Walker, sorry to say, but nearly anyone who’s worked with him is higher on that scale than we are.
You mean this Paul Walker?
It’s funny and also weird that we’re all having the same reaction to this. I truly can not imagine anything dumber than this feud, and I am totally here for it. Why? Is it the guilty pleasure of watching these two torpedo-headed slabs of brisket trade prissy notes over social media? Is it because the F&F franchise seems to have somehow ripped through into this reality, leaking testosterone and man sweat all over The Rock’s silk shirt? Is it because we all know that the only way this ends is with Diesel and Johnson fucking each other? Yes.
It’s so ridiculous! The two of them should just kiss already and get it over with.
Rock / Diesel PPV Sex Cage Match? Oh, hell yeah!Greatest. event. of. all. time.Just imagine the body oil & body grooming budget alone!?
I’m just gonna say it: this is the sponsorship opportunity KY Jelly has been dreaming of.
Kill yourself, degenerate.
Both guys, to the other one:
BABY OIL?! NOOOOO!Sorry, having Mitchell flashbacks…
I think it’s just safe to find entertaining because it’s very low stakes. At the end of the day, they are both well-off millionaires so no one is really getting hurt. Despite the candy-ass comment even the words exchanged are very mild and silly (at least the public ones).
There were people on the last article guess it was a publicity stunt. I’m not sure that makes sense if there’s no movie with both of them, but it’s fundamentally tame enough that it still seems plausible.
The language in this one makes me doubt it’s all publicity.If it’d been more “ooooh yeah, can you smell what I’m cooking? ‘Cause it isn’t FF10!” level? Sure.This was way too dry. Overexplained. “Seriously, I said no, here are several lines of comforting yet very definitive no with little to no wiggle left in”.
…the only proper Rock reaction. (reRocktion)
I don’t think it’s a publicity stunt. The publicity machine for both parties is clearly in overdrive though. Diesel in particular doesn’t want to be seen as the “bad guy” for why the Rock won’t be in any more movies with him.
Diesel definitely comes off as the guy who really doesn’t want to look like he’s chasing, but very clearly is.
For me, it’s that at first glance the two feuders are almost identical slabs of bald musculature, but when you dig into it, each has created their own even more ridiculous identity. Diesel has cast himself as the legitimate ac-tor, who invokes Fellini and talks about his process. Johnson is a millionaire super-celebrity who somehow positions himself as some kind of regular guy, who’s not here for all the theatrics and just cares about hard work. It’s delicious.
What’s funny is I can really see why Johnson might have been pissed off given his professional wrestling reputation (do NOT slack around The Rock). It’s not the first time it would’ve happened with any talent, it’s not the last.I’ve always thought it was a couple of ‘alpha male’ bros jockeying at each other with Johnson finding out he REALLY REALLY doesn’t like working with Diesel in the process. I’ve had coworkers I’d gladly have strangled with a monitor cable, I’m sure others have felt the same about me.
The Adam McKay/Will Ferrell feud is way dumber and not at all fun.
It’s because it’s about family.
Here’s a dumber feud: Which is more smooth?
“That’s not a moon. This is a moon.”
I think I need my helmet cleaned and serviced after that.
The absolute best case scenario is that this is all a work to set up my longtime dream movie reboot: The Rock and Vin in a remake of Tango and Cash. I don’t even care which one is Tango and which one is Cash. Hell, they can switch roles halfway through and I’ll still watch it 20 times.
An unhinged Cage loudly demanding to know if Rock bumped uglies with his sister would be glorious.
Not that you said Cage, Nic Cage would be tremendous in the Jack Palance role.
Diesel should be Cash. It plays against type of him being viewed as more self-serious.
But that would mean we’d be left with the Rock playing another financially-savvy muscular dude that he was just OK at in Ballers.
Except this time he would wear glasses.
It’s not exactly Davis vs Crawford though is it?That was a feud worth getting invested in.
AND HOW LONG WAS THAT AIRPORT RUNWAY!?!?!?!?!?!
JUTHT KITH.
…this is the new “is Andrew Garfield in No Way Home”, isn’t it? Rock’s gonna pop out of a lambo, the unwashed masses will squeal like the pigs at the trough they are, and Fast 10 will make 10 billion dollars.
Better be a space Lamborghini because this series needs to go to space in ten
they went to space in 9
Not “space” enough. I want racing on the moon in ten
Candyass seems to me a compliment. You’re saying you think he’s got a sweet ass
This still holds up as an amazing parody of teen movies
“Whoa! Look at the DUMPER on YOU!” — Frank Reynolds
“would reach and manifest the best Fast in the finale that is 10!”Can fasting too furiously cause a stroke? Would explain a lot though, honestly.Poor Melvin.
Fast And Ludicrous: They’ve Gone To Plaid!
Nah but I heard it can make you go blind and give you hairy palms
“Nevertheless, he imagines it as the ‘antithesis of what Fast And Furious movies generally are,’ which sounds like something.”
A leisurely golf cart drive amongst casual acquaintances?
Slow and Generous
Have you been speaking with my ex? I told her that was never going to happen!
With HOT MERGING ACTION! It’ll make “Mitchell” look like “Fast And Furious”!
“Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?”
As always, American Dad is the perfect mirror to the world.
Wa-ter?
better than nothing and not exactly what anyone wants The AV Club
The ultimate and inevitable conclusion of this meme.
They fucked.
Another Hobbes and Shaw film would be “better than nothing”? Would it, though?
If either of these guys got hit by a bus tomorrow, I wouldn’t really care, so I have no dog in this fight but holy shit, Johnson’s image and words are overly crafted to a degree that is creeping me out. He’s barely human, anymore.
Well, he is a Rock
He is The Rock
*sues Michael Bay for making a movie about him without his permission*
Dwayne The Rock Johnson isn’t really a person, and hasn’t been for years, he’s a limited liability corporation with a score of employees, including in the communications department. This was crafted by someone whose job it is to speak for Johnson while he squats a VW and eats entire chickens.
pity the bus
Shaw remains a villain to me. I don’t care.#JusticeforHan
I prefer Diesel’s ramblings over Johnson’s PR-speak. One seems like a weird person while the other comes across as the avatar of his own brand and spokesman for many others.
It sure wasn’t the Rock who got us going back to Da Movies.I think Diesel invoking Walker here is weird at best, but at least he has personality. Johnson’s become another Will Smith or Tom Cruise, all unknowable product.
Everything after the first one sucks ass, and the first wasn’t that great either.
Markie mad cuz Dwayne rolls too many natural 20’s..
lol. lmao
I haven’t watched one of these stupid movies since the 2nd.
Johnson knows the readiest ways to keep attention. I get grossed out at the constant winking, like he’d surely be my pal. He’s a complete phony who talks about himself and his brand constantly. I have never understood the appeal, and I also find him very unattractive.
I just think he’s kind of hit his personal wall in terms of what he can appear in. I haven’t seen Jungle Cruise so maybe he proved me wrong there, but otherwise he’s the same character in every movie. At least Diesel laid some groundwork with Private Ryan, Boiler Room and Pitch Black.
Agree. I’m a Diesel fan, but I refuse to watch any of his dumb car movies.
And Iron Giant! “Suuuupermaaan!” ❤As a D&D player, I can’t help but feel a little envious of the fact that he was able to make money off of one of his D&D characters by turning it into a video game/film franchise.
I don’t think he can really do anything other be a secondary character to more interesting characters. He works in ensembles, but not as a lead.
People getting weirded out by Dwayne Johnson’s constant PR speak seem to be misremembering some mythical time when he didn’t have a carefully crafted public persona. I think they’re conflating him with the character of The Rock, who admittedly was awesome. But even if you go back to his very first interviews, I don’t think there’s ever really been a genuine unguarded moment of him captured on tape, with the slightest exception of Beyond The Mat or that one episode of “Punk’d” where he truly looked like he was about to wreck that prankster’s shit.
Are they supposed to look like wax statues of themselves?
The inherent dichotomy of Vin Diesel has really been brought to the fore in this feud, and it’s by far my favorite part of it.Vin seems to be an overly precious, self-serious, annoying theatre kid – the kind of theatre kid even the other theatre kids hated – trapped in the body of a lunkheaded action star. And I think that dissonance leads most people to dismiss the first part because it’s the second part that they see on the big screen.Now, we all know that Rock is more or less an android when it comes to PR, so I wonder to what extent his already-established public image and relative deftness at handling these kinds of situations makes his position look stronger than it really is. Maybe it’s none, and my natural tendency (likely because of the aforementioned skill at crafting a public image) is to side with Rock, but I dunno.
These guys are turning into Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, with growth hormones.
C’mon. Don’t you tell me neither of those gals weren’t juicin’, too.
Please. Everyone at Warner Bros knew Joan Crawford was pumped full of Test all through the shoot of Mildred Pierce. Women don’t suddenly gain that level of vascularity in their late 30s naturally.
When these two finally share the silver screen again they’ll be electric in Whatever Happened To Baby Dwayne.
Why not bring back Rick Yune instead for the finale? Johnny Tran was the greatest villain in cinema history. Heck, they already resurrected Letty.
Why does everyone get their celebrity photo taken in front of a wall full of corporate logos these days? Is this something everybody but me knows about? I read AV Club to keep up with the “with it” crowd, not because all these stupid TV shows and actor feuds are interesting. Don’t tell me I wasted my time.
This is not the Diesel that I thought the Rock would feud with
I can not understand why this feud has had such longevity. Can’t they just grab lunch and bond over the difficulty of finding hats that fit massive skulls? Or talk about how it’s kind of weird that neither of them is Pitbull even though they both could be if they really wanted it.
Couple of bald actors pissing and moaning at each other…such pointless BS.
Was watching some heel Rock from like 2003 and I’m good to give him a pass for another 20 years or so. “The best part about being here in Sacramento is that in about a hour and a half, The Rock is gonna leave Sacramento.”
I think Dwayne Johnson just seems like an all-around nice upstanding guy, so when he gets upset or challenges someone, you’re more likely to pay attention or care. It’s like if Tom Hanks suddenly started hating on another actor. I do think Vin Deisel cared about Paul Walker but I’m still on Team Rock.