Vehicle Coordinator Alex King Talks Cars, Characters, and CGI in Hobbs & Shaw

The Fast and the Furious franchise might have stars like Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel, and Jason Statham, but they wouldn't look nearly as cool without all of the awesome vehicles they've got to drive throughout the series. What started as street racing cars has evolved into tanks, helicopters, and everything in between. However, the slick cars are always going to be apart of anything Fast & Furious related. Recently, Comicbook.com got a chance to venture out to London to test-drive the McLaren 720S, the very same high-speed sportscar driven by Jason Statham's character Shaw in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. Not only that, but right after taking the McLaren for a spin, we had a chat with Vehicle Coordinator Alex King about a few different vehicular topics, including what it takes to perfectly match a fictional character to the right car:

"There's a whole load of elements if I'm honest. For example, in this show, it's a director, designer deal early on. Sometimes, it's a manufacturing dea [...] If you start from scratch, you're looking at what the person is like. From where I am, I like to think of the cars as characters themselves. They're their own cast. So it depends on what you need, what the guy or the female's background is like, and then you just kind of get the car that suits and fits."

Once you've got the right vehicle matched up to fit a character's personality, than we get into car stunts. Obviously, Hobbs & Shaw isn't short on stunts, and we wanted to know at what point during the film-making process does a team decide if a vehicle stunt can be done practically or why it might have to be done using CGI.

"From storyboard, concepts, ideas - you can sort of see what would be ridiculous to do for real," King said. "We always try and find a solution or a way around and if it gets to a point where it's impossible to do or it's ever deemed unsafe, then that's where your line is."

Make sure you click on the player at the top of the article to watch the interview in its entirety where we also discuss how action stars get out of their sleek sports cars so effortlessly (spoiler alert - it takes a little practice plus movie magic).

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is now available to own on Digital HD and 4K UHD, BluBlu-ray, and DVD.