Following the reveal that the ninth installment in the unexpectedly popular “Fast and Furious” franchise has been pushed back a whole year, one of the film’s stars is sounding off on social media about the man he thinks is to blame for the delay.
Tyrese Gibson, who has played Roman Pearce in the second, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth films in the franchise, hasn’t been shy about blaming fellow costar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for being the reason that the yet untitled “F9” will be late. Soon after the news broke that the release date had been pushed from April 19, 2019 to April 10, 2020, he took to Instagram where he sounded off on Johnson saying that his desire to be a solo act is to blame, and took a shot at his newest box-office flub, “Baywatch.”
Later the same day, he posted another photo of the cast of the original “The Fast and the Furious” film - which included neither him nor Johnson - with more harsh words for The Rock.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gibson may be upset that the rumored spinoff movie, that will reportedly star Johnson’s Lucas Hobbs character and Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw, is getting fast-tracked ahead of the ninth movie. However, the outlet also notes that the film may have been pushed back in an effort to court director Justin Lin, who may be returning to the franchise. Sadly, it’s unclear at this time as Universal Pictures has not made a statement on the matter other than to push the release date of “F9.”
As US Weekly notes, Gibson previously talked about the project in a comment on the former WWE star’s Instagram, which has since been deleted. In it, he mused that he was using the comments section of Johnson’s Instagram because the star wouldn’t answer his calls. He then called on him to agree to not film the spinoff until the ninth movie was done. However, The Rock never responded and hasn’t commented on any of Gibson’s words.