Despite the Fast & Furious’ themes of family and loyalty, tension has been very thick for many involved following announcement of the Hobbs & Shaw spinoff in 2017. Tyrese Gibson, who joined the Fast family in 2 Fast 2 Furious, was pretty vocal against Dwayne Johnson on several Instagram posts saying that Johnson was essentially “breaking up” the family since the spinoff pushed back shooting on Fast 9.
Fast forward to this weekend, Hobbs & Shaw just opened to an impressive $60 million over the weekend but it has seemed to reignite some animosity from certain parties involved in the franchise. Writer Chris Morgan, who has written the films in some capacity since Tokyo Drift but left to cover writing duties on Hobbs & Shaw, spoke about the campaign #JusticeForHan. The hashtag springs from Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) having murdered Han, a valued member of the Fast family, yet seemingly being more or less welcomed into the family by the end of The Fate of the Furious. Hobbs & Shaw does, even more, to redeem the character by showing his loyalty to his mom and sister and essentially making him an anti-hero who is a bit of a former shade of the villain we met at the end of Furious 6.
Chris Morgan claimed in an interview with “Entertainment Weekly” that Han’s death would be addressed in a future Fast & Furious movie but Rodriguez took to social media to claim that Morgan has no clue what the plans for the franchise are moving forward because he’s not involved with their films anymore:
I’ve been around since the beginning way before Chris Morgan came along & he has absolutely nothing to do with where this narrative is or where it’s going FYI 😒 Hobbs and Shaw writer promises that justice for Han is coming | https://t.co/B3ZbIZ5vot https://t.co/6u2oDTec5U
— Michelle Rodriguez (@MRodOfficial) August 6, 2019
Now before we accuse Rodriguez of throwing shade ala Tyrese Gibson, the actress did give props to Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham vie this tweet that was posted just today:
Im happy for Dwayne Johnson & Jason Statham, these boys have great chemistry & are bringing a wonderful playfulness to the fast family. Anytime an ethic human leads the charge in a franchise I celebrate it with joy Petty’s not my thing. Unity is everything especially right now 🌬
— Michelle Rodriguez (@MRodOfficial) August 6, 2019
Michelle Rodriguez has always been very vocal and I think her comments about Chris Morgan have less to do with shading Hobbs & Shaw and more about addressing that he’s very much not involved in what they’re doing with Fast 9 & Fast 10. Daniel Casey is listed as the screenwriter on Fast 9 and it looks like Morgan gets some kind of story credit for having a role in creating some of the characters prior to this film and he has also been an executive producer on the franchise since Furious 6.
Btw, Tyrese Gibson also got pretty petty this weekend with a since-deleted Instagram post about the opening of Hobbs & Shaw which suggested it was the lowest opening of the franchise since Tokyo Drift. “The Shade Room” has some of the Instagram post below:
Gibson went on to say “You know what maybe just maybe … The Rock and the crew will come dance with us again for #Fast10. We can all hug it out and get back to giving the true fans who have supported this franchise for 20 years WHAT they want … No hating I’m just pointing out the facts.”
Perhaps someone should tell him a $180 million global debut is definitely a win for Universal. Cracks in this family are showing my friends or maybe this is all one big publicity stunt to promote all things Fast & Furious. A $5 billion global franchise doesn’t seem to need this kind of attention. Definitely not a good look for a brand promoting family and loyalty.
That being said, can we get some #JusticeForGisele because Mia and I can’t be the only ones that cared that she unceremoniously died with very little fanfare…just saying.
