Fast & Furious: Dwayne Johnson Confirms He Won’t Return for Future Films

If you were holding out hope that Hobbs would find his way back to the family before the Fast & Furious franchise comes to an end, it’s time to start giving up on those dreams. After starring in three mainline Fast & Furious movies, and leading the Hobbs & Shaw spinoff movie with Jason Statham, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson appears to be done with not only Vin Diesel, but the entire Universal film series.

The feud between Diesel and Johnson over the last couple of years has been anything but private, and it’s the reason why the latter worked on spinning his character into a separate corner of the Fast universe. With only two main Fast movies left, however, many hoped that the two would put their differences aside so Hobbs could reunite with Dom and the rest of the family. According to Johnson, that’s just not happening.

The Hollywood Reporter recently sat down with Johnson and Emily Blunt to interview them about their new Disney film, Jungle Cruise. When the topic of Diesel’s recent comments about the Fast Feud came up, Johnson said that all he could do was laugh, before confirming that the final two films will be made without him.

“I laughed and I laughed hard,” Johnson said of Diesel’s “tough love” comments. “I think everyone had a laugh at that. And I’ll leave it at that. And that I’ve wished them all. I wish them well on Fast 9. And I wish them the best of luck on Fast 10 and Fast 11 and the rest of the Fast & Furious movies they do that will be without me.”

There haven’t been any official announcements from Universal or the Fast producers about Johnson’s involvement, but that sounds pretty definitive. That being said, director Justin Lin will always remain hopeful about getting all of the characters back into the fold.

Lin will be directing both Fast 10 and Fast 11, and he was the driving force behind Han’s return in F9 (which he also directed). He wants the entire franchise together before it comes to an end. Ahead of F9‘s release — before Johnson’s latest comments — Lin told CinemaBlend that he would make room for Hobbs and Shaw to return.

“I think that’s always been our approach,” Lin said. “So many of the conversations I have is about characters that are not even in there, but are still, obviously, they are living and breathing in this universe. On this one, when I came back, I was thinking a lot about Hobbs and Shaw, and all of the other characters. I never think of them as being gone, for sure.”

Perhaps Justin Lin can convince Johnson to change his mind. Then again, The Rock is one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, and he’d clearly rather focus on his own projects than work alongside Diesel again.