For a franchise that embraces the cheesiness of a catchphrase like ‘Family’ there sure does seem to be a ton of drama happening behind the scenes of the ‘Fast and Furious’ brand. If you’d been paying attention to the social media accounts of stars Dwayne Johnson, Tyrese Gibson, and Vin Deisel over the past year you will have definitely noticed that there is something very wrong with the state of the franchise. While the ‘Fate of the Furious’, the most recent release, was a critical hit it may have fractured the cast and crew for good. Star actor Tyrese Gibson has been quick to lash out publicly and he is targeting his ire at one person, in particular, Dwayne Johnson.
Johnson came into the ‘Furious’ franchise tasked with bringing the brand to the next level. As Special Agent Luke Hobbs The Rock managed to turn into one of the fan favorites of the franchise in a matter of moments. Now, Hobbs and his in-film rival Deckard Shaw (played by Jason Statham) are getting their own spin-off film and Tyrese Gibson could not be more upset about it. Gibson has been calling out The Rock for the past couple of months since the original rumors of a spin-off started to swirl around in the ether. Now that it was made official, Gibson decided to fully put the A-List actor on blast.
Gibson spoke with TMZ and he let loose. The star actor, who has been in just about every film in the history of the franchise, seemed largely upset at Johnson for how his solo film was interfering with the next sequel in the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise. Gibson pointed out that the films had never been delayed before due to an actor, pointing out that they only delay the ‘Furious’ series ever saw was when their ‘brother, Paul Walker’ tragically passed away. The Dwayne Johnson/Jason Statham spin-off film will push ‘Furious 9’ until 2020 at the earliest. Gibson said of this fact, “I just got a problem with Dwayne; it appears he’s being selfish. It appears that he’s so focused on furthering his own self-interest.”
After Tyrese took to the press with TMZ he went on to dig up an old Instagram video of Dwayne Johnson dissing Gibson’s album, ‘Black Rose’. This very public and very ugly spat isn’t good for anyone in ‘The Family’ and certainly not for Universal Pictures who will want to be able to market their biggest stars as a team.
