Hobbs and Shaw is the spinoff franchise partly responsible for my favourite Boy Sh-t of 2016/2017. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Vin “Difficult To Work With” Diesel could barely stand each other enough to be on set or on a red carpet together. Their Boy Sh-t led to some expert shade from Dwayne and some petty bullsh-t from Vin. It was more entertaining than all three of the last Fast movies.
I thought Hobbs and Shaw was only going to be good for causing drama (Tyrese and Vin claim The Rock “broke up the family” because the spinoff is going to delay F9 until 2020) but now, it’s going to be good for at least one more thing: Idris Elba. Idris is in final negotiations to join The Rock (Hobbs) and Jason Statham (Shaw) to play the villain in Hobbs and Shaw. Yes, please. I’ll take Idris’s sexy evil Shere Khan voice any day. Idris Elba should be headlining his own franchises but if he’s going to hop on one, this is a smart choice. Or I should say it’s a safe choice.
The Fast and Furious has always been a reliable source of dumb fun and preposterous action sequences which I used to quite enjoy but the popularity of its characters has shifted over the years from Diesel’s Dominic Toretto (whose once alluring shtick is now getting tired) to Johnson’s Luke Hobbs (who should have been named Calvin Hobbs obviously). The Fast franchise isn’t hurting at the box office but Hobbs and Shaw has a chance to inject new life into a series that feels like it’s on its way out. And Forbes is even predicting that it might become a bigger draw than F9. Does F9 have Idris Elba? There’s your answer. Plus, Hobbs and Shaw will likely have a more harmonious vibe on set considering the warm welcome The Rock gave Idris on Instagram.
Somewhere, Vin Diesel is doing the Arthur fist of frustration and singing out his envy into a karaoke machine.
Since Idris knew we’d all be talking about him today, he was kind enough to show up at JFK airport in New York so we would have new photos to go with the Hobbs and Shaw casting news. Idris and his fiancé Sabrina Dhowre are still going strong. I appreciate that Sabrina is a comfortable traveller. These are great travel sweat pants.
