Dwayne Johnson Turns In A Status Report On Proposed Fast And Furious Spinoff And His Desire To Expand The Franchise

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, arguably one of the most prolific talents working in Hollywood today, is currently in the midst of Baywatch‘s press tour, and that can only mean one thing: over the coming weeks, the former WWE wrestler will be soliciting questions pertaining to most, if not all of the many, many feature films currently lining his slate.

Case in point: when WGTC caught up with The Fate of the Furious actor, we couldn’t help but quiz Johnson on his involvement in the DC Extended Universe. On board to play the brooding anti-hero known as Black Adam, it seems as though the Hollywood superstar already has an actor in mind to play Shazam (spoilers: it’s Armie Hammer).

Warner’s DCEU is by no means the only mega-franchise that has carved out room for Dwayne Johnson though, after Universal welcomed him aboard the Fast and Furious saga in time for Fast Five. Introduced as an archenemy to Dominic and the rest of the crew, Johnson’s Luke Hobbs has evolved into a bona fide fan-favorite, leading Universal to hatch early plans for a spinoff movie featuring Hobbs and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). News broke almost four weeks ago, but when Fandango caught up with Dwayne Johnson to discuss his leading role in Baywatch, the actor touched base on his desire to “expand” the Fast franchise.

Per Fandango:

It’s an exciting time for us over there with the Fast and Furious movies because the goal over there, speaking as a producer, is to build out the universe and really give something back to the fans that they like. I will say this – we never anticipated the chemistry that Jason [Statham] and I would have.

Now Jason and I love each other – we’re really good buddies. But putting us in those scenarios where we were feeding off each other’s jokes was just amazing. That chemistry really blossomed on-screen, and it informed us as to where we will go next.

The Fate of the Furious roared into theaters a month ago and has since collected $1.16 billion in box office receipts. That’s a staggering total, and one that will no doubt fuel umpteen spinoff movies beyond the final two chapters – namely Fast 9 (2019) and Fast 10 (2021) – in the Toretto saga. A Hobbs/Shaw buddy-cop movie, anyone?