Here's How Fast X Brought [REDACTED] Back Into The Family - /Film

Here's How Fast X Brought [REDACTED] Back Into The Family - /Film,Everyone's favorite Fast & Furious character, [REDACTED], is back!

Here’s How Fast X Brought [REDACTED] Back Into The Family – /Film

This post contains major spoilers for “Fast X.”

Even before “Fast X” hit theaters on Friday, headlines had already spoiled the return of a certain actor who seemed done with the franchise forever. The cat is long since out of the bag now, but that doesn’t make it any less surprising in the credits scene to see none other than Dwayne Johnson show up as Luke Hobbs again in “Fast X.”

What’s surprising about it, despite Johnson leading the 2019 spin-off “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw,” is that the actor had indicated he was done with “Fast & Furious” back in the summer of 2021 when the last movie, “F9,” hit. At the time, he and Vin Diesel were embroiled in a public feud, with Diesel taking credit for Johnson’s acting, and Johnson making veiled references to Diesel as a “candy ass” in a since-deleted Instagram post.

Never mind the fact that Johnson had used the same phrase, “candy ass,” in his Wrestlemania days. The beef, in this instance, seemed real, and not just a bit of wrestling theater. When asked who, against all odds, brokered the peace treaty with Johnson, enabling his “Fast X” cameo to happen, director Louis Letterier told The Hollywood Reporter:

“I kind of did. We all did. Ultimately, the movie did. I didn’t know Dwayne, personally, but we reached out to Dwayne and Dwayne’s team. We sort of looked at each other from across the room and winked a few months back, saying, ‘We should work together.’ And then I had this idea and I presented it to the producers and the studio. And then we reached out to Dwayne and his team and said, ‘Just come and watch the movie. You have to love the movie first.'”

‘He came to see the movie and really loved it’

Universal Pictures

“Fast X” also brings back Gal Gadot in a cameo as Gisele Yashar. Like Dwayne Johnson, John Cena (“Peacemaker”), and “Fast X” newcomer Jason Momoa (“Aquaman”), Gadot has headlined her own DC superhero property outside the “Fast & Furious” franchise. She was last seen making a Wonder Woman cameo in “Shazam: Fury of the Gods,” which featured “Fast X” costar Helen Mirren as the villain.

The failure of “Black Adam” to change the hierarchy of profits or power in the DC universe may have helped lead Johnson back to the “Fast & Furious” franchise. Maybe he’s jonesing to make “Hobbs & Shaw 2” happen now that his DC days seem to be done. Or maybe he just genuinely had a change of heart, as evidenced by the regret he expressed over his feud with Vin Diesel, even before “Black Adam” hit theaters. Louis Letterier seems to think it was simply a matter of Johnson seeing “Fast X,” loving it, and wanting to be a part of the franchise again:

“He came to see the movie and really loved it, and then we started talking. It was very smooth, and frankly, as a fan, I could not conceive continuing the franchise without either Dwayne or Gal Gadot. This franchise was built by actors and characters. The set pieces are wonderful. They keep you entertained and keep you shoving popcorn in your mouth, but the characters make this franchise what it is.”

“Fast X” is in theaters now.