As I've mentioned numerous times before while covering the Fast and Furious franchise, one of the most consistent draws of the series has been the introduction of Dwayne Johnson's gruff FBI agent, Hobbs, and his increasingly comfy relationship with Dom and the crew. In last year's terribly written, impressively directed Furious 7, his climactic gatling gun showdown with a freaking helicopter nearly made me jump out of my seat with excitement. Mind you, I'm a 32-year-old foreign-film snob who spent most of his college years bemoaning movies exactly like the Fast and Furious films.

fast-and-furious-spinoff-charlize-theron
Image via Universal

So, all the talk of Hobbs' increased screen time in Fast 8, the hotly anticipated 2018 sequel that is currently being shot under the capable eye of F. Gary Gray, has been making me anxious to see how the next film turns out. (This goes double for the fact that Gray's Straight Outta Compton was one of the scant few big-studio releases that I thoroughly enjoyed last year.) We've seen a few glances of Johnson in the time since Furious 7 but today, the talented performer dropped a bit of a bombshell on Instagram: a new set photo of Johnson wearing a familiar orange jumpsuit and handcuffs while in prison.

As far as the narrative of the new film is concerned, this doesn't give much away because there's no context, but for Hobbs' trajectory, it would count as a major kind of revelation. My bet is that Hobbs will be sent into jail to make a contact and get information, which will end with some sort of insane action spectacle but really, who knows at this point? It's primarily just strange to see a man so universally beloved, and so regularly seen as a lovable hero, in the same orange jumpsuit as the women in Orange is the New Black. Can we get a petition going for Hobbs vs. Boo or is that too pie in the sky?


Here's the Instagram post via Johnson:

fast-8-vin-diesel
Image via Universal Pictures
fast-and-furious-8-image
Image via Universal

fast-and-furious-8-cast
Image via Universal