The gauntlet has been thrown! Vin Diesel has issued a very Felliniesque open statement/challenge/invitation to Dwayne Johnson asking him to return to the Fast and Furious franchise in Fast 10 to "fulfill" his destiny.
In an Instagram post, Diesel directly addresses his "little brother Dwayne," and in a very Dom Toretto voice, gives a pep talk about returning to finish what they started, and "manifest the best Fast in the finale." Honestly, The whole post is so ridiculously over the top and earnest you could easily buy it as a piece of dialogue in a Fast and Furious movie.
Diesel writes:
"My little brother Dwayne... the time has come. The world awaits the finale of Fast 10. As you know, my children refer to you as Uncle Dwayne in my house. There is not a holiday that goes by that they and you don’t send well wishes... but the time has come. Legacy awaits. I told you years ago that I was going to fulfill my promise to Pablo. I swore that we would reach and manifest the best Fast in the finale that is 10! I say this out of love... but you must show up, do not leave the franchise idle you have a very important role to play. Hobbs can’t be played by no other. I hope that you rise to the occasion and fulfill your destiny."
As if addressing Dwayne as a little brother, or trying to appeal to him by bringing Diesel's kids wasn't bizarre enough, the fact that this is the first time Diesel addresses Johnson in years is just plain funny. In case you were unaware or simply want to revisit the epic feud between the two actors, we have to go back to 2016.
Before the release of The Fate of the Furious in August of 2016, Dwayne Johnson shared a post on Instagram calling out his male co-stars for behaving as "candy asses." This continued on and off for a few years, with reports that Johnson was trying to poach the rest of the fambly and bring them over to the Hobbs & Shaw spin-off, while the feud got serious enough that Johnson skipped Fast 9 altogether. Then this year we finally learned about Diesel's "tough love" towards Johnson, which was "Felliniesque," which caused Johnson to laugh hard and joke about how much Diesel taught him about acting.
This is to say, it is quite unlikely that Johnson will agree to return to the franchise just due to an Instagram post. Then again, how can one argue against destiny?
Fast 10 will race into theaters April 7, 2023, with or without Uncle Dwayne.