Fate Of The Furious Reportedly Cut Spinoff Set Up Scene For The Rock & Jason Statham

04/14/2017 02:02 pm EDT

The eighth installment of the Fast & Furious franchise, The Fate of the Furious, arrives with the largest cast of any film in the franchise. It is an ensemble consisting of franchise staples, sophomores, and fresh faces.

Of course, Vin Diesel returns to the film as Dominic Toretto with Michelle Rodriguez, Tyreese Gibson, and Chris Jackson by his side and Jason Statham, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and Kurt Russell returning. With the film out in theaters now, it's clear that some of the newer faces are leaving the strongest and more favorable impressions on fans of the franchise.

Perhaps this is why Diesel, who also serves as executive producer on the F. Gary Gray-directed film, had a scene which didn't involve him cut from the theatrical release.

Towards the end of the film, a cast ensemble scene sees Johnson and Statham's Hobbs and Deckard characters having a chat. The cut in theaters, however, is a shortened version of the scene which might have been setting off some future adventures for the characters who meshed well on screen together.

"They had early screenings where Johnson and Statham popped so much on-screen together that they were looking at doing a spinoff," one insider said according to The Wrap.

"Producer Neal Moritz had the tag filmed without Diesel's knowledge, the insiders said," the report goes on. "When executive producer Samantha Vincent, Diesel's sister, learned of the scene and told Diesel, he became enraged, according to the insiders."

From here, Diesel apparently called the film's studio, NBC Universal, to angrily voice his opinion on the subject, as the man who he had been beefing with on set appeared to be gaining a spinoff within a universe of characters and mythology Diesel spent the time creating.

During production of the set, Johnson took to Facebook and Instagram in a rare moment of frustration to vent. "Some conduct themselves as stand-up men and true professionals, while others don't," Johnson wrote. "The ones that don't are too chicken s— to do anything about it anyway. Candy asses. When you watch this movie next April and it seems like I'm not acting in some of these scenes and my blood is legit boiling — you're right."

Representatives of the actors have not commented on the subject.

According to Umberto Gonzalez's report, "when studio executives and filmmakers reviewed the sequence that included Johnson and Statham, they 'loved it,' but ultimately decided not to include it in the theatrical release because 'the sequence would make for a better opportunity somewhere else.'"

MORE: The Fate Of The Furious Is Eyeing A Massive Opening Weekend / Vin Diesel Reveals How Helen Mirren Got Cast In The Fate Of The Furious / Vin Diesel On How Paul Walker Motivated Him To Do The Fate Of The Furious/ Vin Diesel On Why Dom Goes Dark

The Fate of the Furious is now playing in theaters.

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