Last month, Tyrese Gibson took to Instagram to plead with the Rock to prioritize the ninth official Fast and Furious movie over the spinoff starring Rock’s character, Luke Hobbs, and Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw. Gibson deleted the comment he left on one of the Rock’s posts, in which he said, “If you move forward with that #Hobbs Movie you will have purposely ignored the heart to heart moment we had in my sprinter.†He also wrote, “I don’t wanna hear from you until you remember what we talked about. I’m on your timeline cause you’re not responding to my text messages – #FastFamily is just that a family…….. We don’t fly solo.â€
It’s unknown whether or not the Rock ever texted Gibson back, but his pleas went unnoticed — by both his co-star and by Universal Pictures. F9 was originally slated for 2019, but that was pushed back a year yesterday to 2020, and news came down today that Hobbs and Shaw will go on their undisclosed side mission on July 26, 2019. Gibson was incensed enough about the date shift to post his own Instagram calling out the Rock for his self-centered behavior, and this time, he vows not to delete his comments.
In the absence of another apparent leader, Michelle Rodriguez seriously needs to call a family meeting and force Rock and Gibson to resolve their issues. Set them up on a closed quarter-mile course and see who’s got the ten-second car. Either that or Vin Diesel needs to step in and deliver one hell of an inspiring speech in the middle of a massive warehouse garage.