Dwayne Johnson’s Fast & Furious spin-off called Hobbs & Shaw got its release date moved, but only slightly.
Looking back at its beginnings, it’s hard to believe that Fast & Furious franchise spanned eight movies; that it has two more in the works; and that it will have one or more spin-offs. The first film in the series was called The Fast and the Furious, and it was made on a modest budget of $38 million. It went off to earn a staggering $200 million at the box office. Remember, all of this happened in 2001. But, even back then the franchise was in the making.
Fast forward, and the last movie in the series, The Fate of the Furious is the eighth installment in the franchise. All of the films together earned more than $5.1 billion at the box office. What’s even more amazing is that as the franchise progressed not only that they gained more money, they also got more critical acclaim. Seventh and eight films are the ones that made the most of the money, each of them crossing $1 billion marks.
While fans of the franchise will have to wait beyond 2019 to see Fast 9 and maybe fast 10, the F&F Universe will be expanded next year with Hobbs & Shaw. This is the name that is being used as the title of the spin-off, although it’s official name still hasn’t been announced. All that it’s known is that the project will revolve around Johnson’s character Luke Hobbs, and Deckard Shaw played by Jason Statham. Hobbs was introduced as a character in Fast Five and instantly became a fan favorite. Deckard, on the other hand, had a brief introduction in Fast & Furious 6, before debuting in Furious 7.
The original date for the release of this film was set for July 26th, 2019. Since then, the movie got postponed and now it will be released on August 2nd, 2019.
Universal is doing the right thing with making a spin-off based on Johnson’s character who is immensely popular. With the ongoing beef between Diesel and Johnson, it remains unclear if The Rock will appear in Fast 9. Taking advantage of his star power and the massive popularity of the franchise making a spin-off is taking a step in the right direction. Just in case the two muscle-men refuse to work together.
