Fast & Furious Spinoff ‘Hobbs & Shaw’: New First Look at The Rock and Jason Statham Revealed

Hobbs and Shaw just wrapped filming in London, and the movie’s star is incredibly excited to share what’s to come in The Fast and the Furious spin-off. Before the production takes the cast and crew to Hawaii, Entertainment Weekly is offering up some details.

According to the EW exclusive, filming “has been going great” for Dwayne Johnson. “You are going to f—-ing love this movie,” the actor declared.

Following Luke Hobbs (Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), this new movie will be focusing on an alliance between the two characters, who have had a rocky history during their time in the franchise.

Hobbs first appeared in Fast Five as a Diplomatic Security Service agent who is tasked with hunting down Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel)’s crew. Shaw, on the other hand, entered the films as a villain, initially killing a prominent member of the crew in the mid-credits scene for Fast & Furious 6. However, after spending the seventh film as the main antagonist, Shaw returned to The Fate of the Furious as a good guy.

The last film in the franchise proved one important thing: Johnson and Statham have chemistry worthy of its own movie. Johnson revealed to EW that talks of a spin-off have been in the works since he joined the franchise, but it wasn’t until “the biting chemistry” with Statham that they knew what story had to be told. The two actors love “talking sh‑‑ to each other” and “beating the sh‑‑ out of each,” which will surely make for an entertaining film rooted in frenemy-ship.

Despite being “polar opposites,” the two characters have a “magnetic attraction.”

“I guess a good way to describe it is you have two guys who don’t really like each other,” Johnson explains, “love to slap each other around, always think that they’re right, and will always have each other’s back — but they will never admit it.”

If you’re worried the spin-off film will stray too far from the Fast and Furious path, have no fear! Sticking to the main identity of the franchise is wildly important to The Rock. His collaboration with the film’s director, David Leitch (Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde), is rooted in open and honest discussions.

“As excited as we all are about shooting this franchise and creating something that is awesome for the fans, it was also imperative — not only to me, but to Jason, David, the entire cast — that we still maintained the core values of what has made Fast & Furious such a beloved franchise.”

In addition to Johnson and Statham, the upcoming movie is set to star Vanessa Kirby, Idris Elba, Eiza González, and Eddie Marsan.

Hobbs & Shaw will be in theaters on August 2, 2019.