It seems that Instagram is the place to settle conflict these days – at least if you’re a cast member of The Fast And The Furious franchise. After Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, and Michelle Rodriguez all aired their views and differences with passive-aggressive Instagram posts over the past year, Tyrese Gibson has now entered the fray, fuelling speculation about the true cause of a recently announced release delay for Fast And Furious 9.
The sequel to the blockbuster hit The Fate Of The Furious has been delayed by a full year, and rumours have begun to swirl – asking whether it’s due to the development of a spinoff film featuring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. Days ago, Tyrese Gibson responded to Dwayne Johnson’s Instagram post, which pictured him hard at work on project development, with a ‘calling out’ of what he considers to be divisive behaviour. Gibson clearly believes that spinoffs from the Fast And Furious franchise are unacceptable.
Now, he’s fired off another Instagram shot, paying tribute to the cast of the original 2001 movie, and accusing The Rock of ‘breaking up the family’ by seizing upon the opportunity for a spinoff film.
Gibson makes the point that he and Ludacris previously turned down their own spinoff opportunity, specifically because they believed it better to ‘keep the family together,’ without striking out alone.
These arguments are somewhat confusing, though. If “diversity, love, multi-ethnic, worldwide, multi-generational” content is important to have represented in cinema (and it is), isn’t it a good thing for the Fast and Furious franchise to expand and include other projects with franchise characters – and potentially introduce new ones? Clearly, from the point of view of the studio, the motivation here is the fact that vast sums could be earned at the box office, but it’s not the case that they’ve cancelled the main series of films in favour of a Dwayne Johnson-centric spinoff.
Fast And Furious 9 has simply been delayed – possibly to make room for other projects. Talk of ‘breaking up the family’ only makes sense if such a spinoff results in cast members not returning to the main series. Whether that’s what’s actually happening or not, remains to be seen, but stay tuned for further updates.