Hobbs & Shaw’s Hiram Garcia on Making a Different, Fun Fast & Furious Movie

The first Fast & Furious spin-off film, Hobbs & Shaw, is finally hitting theaters on Friday. The movie had its world premiere earlier this week, and the first reviews are making it sound like the new film is a ton of fun. During the movie’s press junket, ComicBook.com’s own Brandon Davis had the opportunity to speak with Hiram Garcia, the film’s producer, who spoke about adding a “different” and “fun” film to the iconic franchise.

“The Fast & Furious universe is incredible. And those movies speak for themselves,” Garcia explained. “They are huge, the stakes are massive, the scale is absurd. But for us, when we were invited into the universe, one of the things we wanted to do all the way back from Fast Five was just make the audience smile. We wanted to wink at the audience, make them have some fun and as we started down that path with six, and seven, and then in eight we really found this dynamic with the character of Shaw. As the story makers for this character, we were able to channel what we always loved in film, whether it be that Tango & Cash, that 48 Hrs., that buddy, cop comedy vibe.”

He added, “So drafting off of what we did in eight as we said, ‘This is a time, let’s spin-off a movie, but let’s make sure it feels distinct that we’re giving the fans something within the universe, but something a little bit different. So let’s make sure it kicks ass, let’s make sure there’s spectacle, that the stakes are huge, the action is crazy. But let’s turn up the fun and the humor just a little bit more and give them a whole lot more trash talking.’”

“Is it possible that you kind of just launched a franchise within a franchise?,” Davis asked.

“Well, look, I mean the fans are always the ones who decide that. And if there’s anything this business has taught you is you never get ahead of yourself. But if we’re so lucky and the fans receive it the way we think they will, that’s the goal. Look, there’s so many unbelievable characters in the Fast & Furious universe, but there’s only so much time in a Fast & Furious movie to get to know each of these characters. So our goal is to start to create an outlet where we can spin off these characters, let fans learn about the ones they love, and keep building it out. So if we’re lucky, this could be the beginning of something nice.”

Hobbs & Shaw is set to star Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Vanessa Kirby, Idris Elba, Eiza González, and Eddie Marsan. The film is being directed by David Leitch, who also helmed Deadpool 2 and Atomic Blonde.

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw will hit theaters on August 2nd.