Dwayne Johnson Once Called Out Manipulative Vin Diesel for Involving His Children and Paul Walker in Plea to Make Fast and Furious Return

Dwayne Johnson has established himself in Hollywood as one of the most successful actors. Having worked in blockbuster films, Johnson is a bankable name in the film industry. One of Johnson’s biggest breaks in Hollywood was his addition to the Fast & Furious franchise. The WWE icon-turned-Hollywood megastar played the role of Luke Hobbs in four installments of the film. However, Dwayne’s rift with the star of the franchise, Vin Diesel, led to the former’s exit. Despite Diesel’s efforts to make peace with Johnson, the latter never returned. 

During the production of The Fate of the Furious in 2016, Vin Diesel angered Dwayne Johnson by arriving late at the set. This spurred Johnson to take to Instagram and criticize his male co-stars for being “unprofessional”. In 2021, Diesel implored Dwayne Johnson in a social media post to return to the franchise to finish the story. 

Diesel referred to The Rock as his “little brother” in the Instagram post and mentioned that his kids miss him. In addition, Vin Diesel even mentioned Paul Walker, much to DJ’s annoyance. But Diesel got the cold shoulder from Johnson. In fact, Johnson viewed Diesel’s approach as manipulation. 

Dwayne Johnson says Vin Diesel’s public post was an example of his manipulation

During an interview with CNN, Dwayne Johnson gave his thoughts on the prospect of seeing him return to the Fast & Furious franchise. According to Johnson, he had expressed his unwillingness to return directly to VD. The multi-time WWE Champion claimed that he and Diesel had come to a “clear understanding”.

Johnson also did not appreciate the fact that Vin Diesel went as far as to involve his kids and Paul Walker to get Johnson to budge. He called Vin Diesel’s social media post “an example of his manipulation”. 

“I told [Diesel] directly that I would not be returning to the franchise. I was firm yet cordial with my words and said that I would always be supportive of the cast and always root for the franchise to be successful, but that there was no chance I would return.” 

“Vin’s recent public post was an example of his manipulation. I didn’t like that he brought up his children in the post, as well as Paul Walker’s death. Leave them out of it. We had spoken months ago about this and came to a clear understanding.”

Fast-forward to this day, the duo has seemingly ironed out their differences, as Dwayne Johnson has reportedly agreed to return to the franchise. According to reports, Dwayne Johnson will be featured in the film’s final installment.

Dwayne Johnson made an eye-popping $20 million from Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw

In 2019, Dwayne Johnson played the lead role in the F&F spinoff, Hobbs & Shaw. The film featured various other bankable stars such as Jason Statham and Idris Elba. The film turned out to be a banger, grossing $760 million worldwide. Interestingly, Dwayne Johnson’s earnings were almost as much as Statham and Elba’s combined salaries.

While Statham and Elba made $13M and $8M respectively, Dwayne Johnson hit a massive payday, taking home $20M. This just goes to show the significance of Luke Hobbs in the Fast and Furious film series.

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