'Deadpool 2' Director Tapped to Helm 'Fast & Furious' Spinoff Movie
The "Fast &Furious" spinoff finally has a director.
Entertainment Weekly revealed that "Deadpool 2" helmer David Leitch reached an agreement with Universal Pictures to direct the still-untitled "Fast & Furious" spinoff that will center on Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham's characters Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw.
Leitch is also credited for his work as the director of "Atomic Blonde" as well as the co-director of "John Wick." He is also the stunt coordinator for various films, including "Fightclub," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," "The Bourne Ultimatum," and "Conan the Barbarian."
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Details about the next installment from the billion-dollar action movie franchise remain under wraps, but speculations claimed that the film might be called "Hobbs and Shaw."
Johnson's character Agent Luke Hobbs was first introduced in "Fast Five" as a member of the US Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) who aims to track down Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew because he believes that they killed some of the upcoming DEA agents. But in "Fast & Furious 6," he asked Toretto for help to track down the international crime syndicate leader Owen Shaw (Luke Evans).
Statham's Deckard Shaw happens to be Owen's older brother. He and Hobbs had an intense altercation in "Furious 7" as part of his revenge for his brother's death. But the two later worked together in "The Fate of the Furious" when they were hired by Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) when they thought that Toretto abandoned his crew and forged an alliance with cyberterrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron).
The script for the upcoming "Fast and Furious" spinoff was written by Chris Morgan, the same writer who came up with the screenplay for six movies under the commercially successful film series including "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," "Fast & Furious," "Fast Five," "Fast & Furious 6," "Furious 7," and most recently, "The Fate of the Furious."
Aside from Johnson and Statham, the casting roster for the movie spinoff remains under wraps. There is also no information yet if other cast members from the original movie saga will also appear in the upcoming movie.
However, it seemed like their co-star Tyrese Gibson is not expected to be part of the upcoming spinoff after he criticized the film in his Instagram post, where he stated that it caused the ninth "Fast and Furious" movie to be delayed for another year.
"Congratulations to @TheRock and your brother in law aka 7 bucks producing partner @hhgarcia41 for making the fast and the furious franchise about YOU - And like you, DJ even if they call I will not be deleting this post - Gn folks see you in 2020 April #FastFamily right? Nah..... it's about #TeamDewayne #3yrs will it be worth the wait? #NoShaw just Hobbs will this be another #BayWatch? Guys guys just relax I'm just a passionate film critic," the actor who plays the role of Roman Pearce in the movie franchise wrote.
Meanwhile, "Deadpool 2" star Ryan Reynolds congratulated Leitch for his new project by joking about joining the cast of the "Fast and Furious" spinoff as his Marvel character Deadpool.
"You promised Deadpool was in this. You said I get to play the no-nonsense Police Chief, who yells at Hobbs for crashing his 58 valve Nissan Sentra into an Olive Garden. Put me in coach," Reynolds wrote on his Twitter post.
The upcoming "Fast and Furious" spinoff is slated for release on July 26, 2019.
