Vin Diesel made a public plea to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on Instagram to squash their highly publicized beef and re-join the Fast & Furious series for the franchise finale. The 54-year-old Vin Diesel has played Dominic Toretto in the movie franchise since it debuted in 2001 with The Fast and the Furious.
The 49-year-old Johnson joined the series as federal agent Luke Hobbs in 2011’s Fast Five and reprised his role for the sixth, seventh and eighth installments of the franchise before landing his own spin-off, Hobbs & Shaw with Jason Stratham. Johnson and Diesel’s feud came to light in 2016 during the filming 2017’s The Fate Of The Furious, when the former wrestler sent a few shots on IG.
“Some (male co-stars) conduct themselves as stand-up men and true professionals, while others don’t,” Johnson posted at the time.
Diesel, who is also a producer of the films, told Men’s Health that “tough love” was the cause of the dissension between the two.
“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,” the actor stated of his dealings with The Rock.
Johnson never brought that defense and told Vanity Fair that he and Diesel were “philosophically two different people” who “approach the business of moviemaking in two very different ways.” He also revealed in July that he had no interest in returning to the franchise. However, Diesel seems to want to end the feud and round out the final film and pay tribute to the film series’ other co-star Paul Walker, who died in a 2013 car crash.
“My little brother Dwayne… the time has come. The world awaits the finale of Fast 10. As you know, my children refer to you as Uncle Dwayne in my house. There is not a holiday that goes by that [we] … don’t send well wishes… but the time has come. Legacy awaits. I told you years ago that I was going to fulfill my promise to Pablo [Paul Walker]. I swore that we would reach and manifest the best Fast in the finale that is 10! I say this out of love… but you must show up, do not leave the franchise idle you have a very important role to play. Hobbs can’t be played by no other. I hope that you rise to the occasion and fulfill your destiny,” Diesel wrote.
The Rock has yet to respond to the post but hopefully the two can reunite for the conclusion of the film series.
