Dwayne Johnson To Return As Hobbs In New Standalone Fast And Furious Spin-Off, But Where's Shaw?

The balance of power in the "Fast & Furious" universe is about to change.

Mere weeks after audiences experienced the surprise of a lifetime in the post-credits scene for "Fast X," which (spoiler alert!) revealed that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson would be returning hat in hand to the only guaranteed money-making franchise in his holster after flaming out spectacularly with "Black Adam" reprising his fan-favorite role as Luke Hobbs, there's now official confirmation that his grand reappearance with the #FastFambly will take the form of another spin-off movie, because that last one — memorably titled "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw" — went over so well. But hey, as the resident "Fast" fanatic here at /Film, I am completely here for more soap opera-like antics on both sides of the camera with this series.

Universal made the announcement earlier this afternoon (via Variety) along with Johnson himself making a triumphant post on Twitter, revealing that the movie star would be coming back as government agent Hobbs for what's being called a "new standalone film" that will act as a "bridge" between "Fast X" and its sequel.

No other details were immediately available other than familiar franchise architect Chris Morgan penning the script, leaving plenty of questions surrounding exactly when this movie will even come out. The currently ongoing writers' strike stands to complicate matters, though by all accounts the script is complete and now it's just a matter of getting the film into production (albeit without any actual writers on-set, as it stands). Will that be after "Fast X: Furious Harder" (title unconfirmed) releases, forcing audiences to retrace their steps and fill in the blanks with what Hobbs was up to all this time in retrospect, or will this spin-off be sandwiched in-between both installments of the main saga? Who knows!

When The Rock took off that helmet at the end of "Fast X," confirming that he would be coming back to the blockbuster gearhead franchise that he had called home for all those years, fans immediately had to wonder whether this meant a thawing of the cold war between Dwayne Johnson and his co-star Vin Diesel. The prickly work relationship between the two egos is the stuff of legend and directly led to Johnson parting ways with the ever-popular series. But how quickly things change! His years-long dalliance with DC notoriously went up in flames when "Black Adam" crashed and burned at the box office, leaving him in need of a surefire hit to win back those precious PR points. Could that be reason enough to smooth things over with Diesel?

Well, probably not. Rather than appearing in the main franchise films once more, keeping him cordoned off in another spin-off movie would solve that pesky little problem of having to appear on-set with Diesel again — for now, at least. (Johnson dramatically refers to "differences" he's had with Diesel in his Twitter video, amusingly.) Oddly enough, however, that's not the only megastar who appears noticeably absent in the report. There's no mention of Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw either, who previously co-led "Hobbs & Shaw" alongside Johnson in one of the most poorly-received installments in the entire franchise. So where does that leave the actual story of this film? Presumably, it will follow whatever Hobbs has been doing ever since his last appearance in 2017's "The Fate of the Furious" and 2019's "Hobbs & Shaw."

For whatever it's worth, THR calls this project neither a spin-off nor a sequel, but something in-between. Stay tuned to /Film for more details!