With 10 mainline installments in the can, the core cast of the Fast & Furious franchise has swelled to a ridiculous levels, matters that aren’t helped by pretty much any major figure to have either been killed or presumed dead returning from beyond the grave.
If they don’t, then you can expect a family member that’s never been mentioned before to pop up in their stead as a surrogate of sorts, but producer and all-round figurehead Vin Diesel apparently draws the line somewhere when it comes to new recruits after Jean-Claude Van Damme claimed that he was actively blocked from boarding the series by its chrome-domed commander-in-chief.
Speaking to The Telegraph, the eccentric and often-controversial veteran that’s been sued for allegedly lying about his martial arts prowess, got into a fight for dating the estranged wife of his former bodyguard, and rescued a three-month old chihuahua from being euthanized as part of a dispute between Norway and Bulgaria at various points in his career was adamant he’d been offered a part before Diesel shut it down.
His side of the story extends to “They want me in Fast and Furious…But Vin Diesel said, ‘No, I don’t want him,'” but without either the actor who reportedly denied his request or studio Universal addressing the matter, it’s Van Damme’s word against Diesel’s. That being said, it’s not as if he hasn’t had any issues with heavyweights of the action genre before, even if those fences have been mended for the sake of making money.