Jason Statham says Hobbs & Shaw will be much funnier than we’re expecting

Much of what we've seen from HOBBS & SHAW, which now seems to be going by the somewhat unwieldy title of FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS & SHAW, has been full of intense stare-downs and constant frowning, but Jason Statham recently assured Entertainment Weekly that the film will contain more than its share of humour.

The whole thing has been such a laugh. There’s so many great elements to this that has made it become what it has. The director I’ve known for years from the days that I was trying to get into movies. And Dwayne and I never seem to get up to full speed when we’re doing the Fast movies. We get little tastes of some of the fun that we can generate together. Now we really get to take all the brakes off and go to town with it… We’re having a ball. It’s definitely become much funnier than we intended for it to be, I think. It’s just two guys screwing around, making the most of it, and we’re getting some good stuff. But that will be determined by the audience, I’m sure, whether it’s good or bad [laughs]. But we feel like we’re doing something great and we’re enjoying it.

I was certainly a fan of Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson's interactions in the last couple FAST & FURIOUS movies, so I'm excited to see them get the chance to expand on their shtick in the upcoming spin-off. As Luke Hobbs (Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Statham) will be forming an uneasy alliance in HOBBS & SHAW, director David Leitch (DEADPOOL 2) knew that finding a villain ready to take on the jacked-up pair would be paramount: Enter Idris Elba. "Let’s say Hobbs and Shaw are teaming up, now you have to find someone who can take that on. So the list is really short," Leitch said. "You look at Idris as an actor, he’s a powerful, powerful presence, and he can deliver tenfold. Something that we really hope to showcase in this movie is his physical prowess, his fighting prowess, and his car and driving prowess. He’s a badass on all levels and he’s a formidable adversary for these guys. There are very few actors who could pull that off." For Statham's part, he was thrilled to be working with Elba, which he says has been a long time coming.

This has been a long time coming; to do something with Idris is tremendous. With what they’ve created with this character, I don’t think anyone else can put the boots on. He’s just so formidable, so talented, and I’ve never seen a villain played to this kind of depth. He’s just so electric in what he’s delivering.

FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS & SHAW will hit theaters on August 2, 2019.