Now is David Leitch’s moment and he’s not letting a second of it go to waste. It seems like every high-profile project has his name attached in some way, and that’s been the case since co-directing John Wick, then moving on to Atomic Blonde and the upcoming Deadpool 2. Now Leitch is eyeing a brand new potential blockbuster as part of the wildly popular Fast & Furious franchise.
Leitch is the apparent frontrunner to direct the Fast & Furious spinoff featuring Dwayne Johnson as Agent Hobbs and Jason Statham as Deckard Shaw. The untitled film has a script by Chris Morgan, who has written every F&F movie since Tokyo Drift. Otherwise we don’t know jack about the plot other than Hobbs and Shaw will likely bicker and threaten one another while beating up entire rooms of bad guys. Johnson will be unnaturally sweaty, and Statham’s perpetual five o’clock shadow will be a character unto itself. As for potential villains, Charlize Theron’s baddie from Fate of the Furious was in the mix but that’s not happening, possibly because that movie was a creative low.
The spinoff caused a rift within the F&F fam when co-star Tyrese Gibson complained about Fast & Furious 9 being bumped an entire year to make room for it. He’ll just have to deal because Hobbs/Shaw is still set to open on July 26th 2019. [Variety]
