It doesn’t seem like Dwayne Johnson will be returning to the “Fast & Furious” franchise anytime soon.
After his former co-star, Vin Diesel, addressed their apparently palpable tension last month, Johnson, 49, said he thought Diesel’s comments — in which he spoke about having to give his co-stars “a lot of tough love” — were laughable.
“I laughed and I laughed hard,” he said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, which posted Wednesday. “I think everyone had a laugh at that. And I’ll leave it at that. And that I’ve wished them well. I wish them well on ‘Fast 9.’ And I wish them the best of luck on ‘Fast 10’ and ‘Fast 11’ and the rest of the ‘Fast & Furious’ movies they do that will be without me.”
The two have been in a feud since wrapping up production of “The Fate of the Furious” in 2016. While filming, Johnson made scathing comments about several unnamed male co-stars, calling them “candy a–es.”
“Some conduct themselves as stand-up men and true professionals, while others don’t,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “The ones that don’t are too chicken s–t to do anything about it anyway. Candy a–es. 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.”
It was rumored that the actor was referring to Diesel for constantly being late to set, criticizing his co-stars’ acting skills and being difficult to work with.
Diesel, 54, later told Men’s Health that this harsh criticism was purposeful.
“I would do anything I’d have to do in order to get performances in anything I’m producing,” he said. “It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character. My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to be.”
Johnson appeared as agent Luke Hobbs in four of the films, as well as the spinoff movie “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.” He did not return for the franchise’s most recent installment, “F9,” which also stars Jordana Brewster.
Two more films are reportedly set to follow “F9,” with director Justin Lin to return for both.
