The upcoming Fast and Furious spinoff film, Hobbs and Shaw, already has its titular protagonists and its primary villain lined up, and now there’s a photo from the set of the film, too.
Directed by Atomic Blonde and Deadpool 2 filmmaker David Leitch from a script penned by Fast and Furious franchise writer Chris Morgan (who wrote the scripts for each installment of the series since 2006’s Tokyo Drift), Hobbs and Shaw will be the first spinoff film from the franchise. Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham will reprise their roles from the most recent films as former Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs and former special forces assassin Deckard Shaw, respectively. Luther star Idris Elba will play the film’s villain.
Johnson posted the first photo from Hobbs and Shaw on Instagram in September, offering a look at Statham interacting with Leitch on the set of the film. Given the premise of the franchise, it should come as no surprise that a fleet of high-end sports cars are parked in the background of the photo.
Elba’s attachment to the film was first reported by Variety, and it won’t be the first time the actor has played a bad guy. He previously played villain roles in Star Trek Beyond and The Jungle Book.
Hobbs and Shaw is particularly noteworthy as the first spinoff film in the long-running Fast and Furious franchise. Despite spanning eight films over 17 years (with the ninth and 10th installments planned for 2020 and 2021), the series has — up to now, at least — focused solely on the racing-crew-turned-heist-team run by Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel). Hobbs and Shaw is expected to expand the universe beyond that main crew.
Hobbs and Shaw first met as adversaries in Furious 7 but made an uneasy alliance in 2017’s Fate of the Furious after they found themselves locked up in the same high-security prison facility and allied against the same enemy. Both characters are also relatively newer additions to the Fast and Furious ensemble, with Hobbs joining in Fast Five, while Shaw debuted in the post-credits sequence of Fast & Furious 6, where it was revealed he was behind the death of fan-favorite Han Seoul-Oh (Sung Kang).
The uneasy alliance between Hobbs and Shaw has been a polarizing plot point for fans, so it will be interesting to see how this spinoff will make Shaw someone worth rooting for — and how Elba will bring them together in equal hatred.
Updated on September 10: Added the first photo from the set of the film.
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