Vanessa Kirby straps in for Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs and Shaw

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Word has reached the masses that Vanessa Kirby is in final negotiations to join Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham for their Fast & Furious spinoff, HOBBS AND SHAW. Over the past few years, Kirby has spent her time delivering rock-solid performances on shows like Netflix's THE CROWN as well as the British period crime drama THE FRANKENSTEIN CHRONICLES starring Sean Bean (GAME OF THRONES), Richie Campbell (LIAR) and Tom Ward (DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY), among others. Upon signing on the dotted line, Kirby will be buckling her seat belt for DEADPOOL 2 director David Leitch's high-octane action blockbuster.

When the film comes racing into theaters, HOBBS AND SHAW will feature Johnson's US Diplomatic Security Agent Luke Hobbs forming an unlikely alliance with Statham's Deckard Shaw. Chris Morgan is penning the script with Neal H. Moritz producing through his Original Films, alongside Johnson and his Seven Bucks Productions partners, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia. Statham and Morgan will also serve as producers with Kelly McCormick, Steve Chasman, Amanda Lewis, Ainsley Davies and Ethan Smith exec producing.

During its development phase, the HOBBS AND SHAW project had become a subject for controversey among the Fast & Furious cast. After both Vin Diesel and Tyrese Gibson publicly lashed out at Johnson for his pursuing of a spinoff without the Fast family, Johnson responded to their comments by saying, “My female co-stars are always amazing and I love ’em. My male co-stars however are a different story. Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals while others don’t. The ones that don’t are too chicken s*** to do anything about it anyway. Candy asses.”

The reason for the feud being that Gibson addressed Johnson via social media with the following: “You will have purposely ignored the heart to heart moment we had in my sprinter. I don’t wanna hear from you until you remember what we talked about. I’m on your timeline cause you’re not responding to my text messages – #FastFamily is just that a family…….. We don’t fly solo.”

Here's hoping that the Fast family can mend their broken fences before it's time for them all to steel a Lunar rover from the surface of the moon, or whatever they have planned next for the franchise. In the meantime, HOBBS AND SHAW is scheduled for a July 26, 2019 release.