‘Hobbs And Shaw 2’ Officially In Development, According To Dwayne Johnson
Upon its release last summer,Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shawmade $759 million worldwide on a reported budget of around $200 million. Those kinds of numbers usually mean that a sequel won’t be too far behind, and now starDwayne Johnsonhas confirmed thatHobbs and Shaw 2is officially in development. Flex so hard that your cast explodes and read his comment below.
Yesterday, Johnson hosted a Q&A on his Instagram Live, and the topic of aHobbs and Shawsequel came up. “We are developing now the next film, the next [Hobbs & Shaw] movie, and I’m pretty excited about it…Just gotta figure out the creative right now, and the direction we’re going to go,” he said (h/tCollider).
I don’t think anyone actually expected Universal to only make oneHobbs and Shawfilm, especially since the first movie was pretty blatant about laying the groundwork for additional stories for those characters. Plus, the mainFast & Furious"Saga" only has two films left before it crosses the final finish line. (This year’sF9was bumped to 2021 due to COVID-19, and it’s currently unclear exactly whenFast 10will be released.) So while “yep, we’re making a sequel to a movie that everyone thought would get a sequel” may not be the mostexcitingnews, I’m choosing to read his comments as a subtle admission that the firstHobbs and Shawwasn’t as good as it could have been, and an announcement that they’re looking to raise the bar in the sequel – possibly by bringing new blood in on the creative side.
Hobbs and Shawshould have been a home run, but it traded the heart of theFast and Furiousmovies for criminally unfunny banter between Johnson and Jason Statham. Sure, it had a few solid action moments, andRyan Reynolds(who’s reuniting with Johnson for the Netflix action filmRed Notice) may prove to be an entertaining third wheel in a follow-up if his character has a larger role to play. But nearly eight months afterHobbs and Shaw’s release, my biggest memory of the movie is the disappointment I felt when watching it. Hopefully a re-energized (or completely different) creative team can course-correct in a sequel, answering the big question left by the first movie’s ending (who is running Eteon?) and bringing in some electrifying actors to face off against the muscle-bound heroes.
