THE
T
heFast&Furiousfranchisehastwo
new stars behind the wheel. After
eight films, the series is turning the
ignition on its first spin-off (out
now), uniting fan favourites Luke
Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw
(Jason Statham). Their first meeting back in
2015’s Furious 7 resulted in a fistfight and
a hospitalisation, but since then Hobbs and
Shaw have formed a reluctant alliance
whenever the world needs saving.
In this new film, the globe is once again in
peril, forcing the super-skilled odd couple to
work closer than ever. They’re both virtually
indestructible heroes who know their way
around a bad-guy brawl or a car chase, and
they both sport identical hair (or lack
thereof ). The similarities, however, end there- Hobbs is a straitlaced lawman of Samoan
descent who’ll stop at nothing to see his foes
brought to justice. Shaw is a slippery Brit
with a not-so-sparkling past, and he’s more
than willing to bend the rules if it serves his
own interests. “I think people like to see oil
Ready to
kick some
axe: Dwayne
Johnson and
Jason Statham.and water have to merge,” Statham tells WHO
with a laugh. “These characters are bigger and
larger than life, so to try to cork up their egos
to work together is not an easy task.”
So what baddie could be bad enough to
unite these strange bedfellows? Idris Elba
plays Brixton, a super-soldier who’s nicked
a lethal bioweapon. Cyber enhancements and
genetic engineering have turned him near
invincible – and he’s looking to cause some
mayhem. “The overall goal was, ‘Let’s create
the greatest and baddest bad guy the Fast &
Furious franchise has ever seen,’ ” Johnson
explains. “That’s a very high bar, considering
who we’ve had in the past. So when Charlize
[Theron, who starred in 2017’s The Fate of the
Furious] reads this, I’m going to get a text from
her, like, ‘Dude, no-one’s better than me!’ And
I’m going to say, ‘I love you, but ...’ ”
Brixton crosses paths with Shaw’s sister,
Hattie (Vanessa Kirby), a highly skilled MI6
agent who teams up with Hobbs and Shaw to
try to bring Brixton down. (Also making an
appearance is Hattie and Deckard’s mother,played by a returning Helen Mirren.) Their
pursuit of Brixton takes them from the Shaws’
home turf of London to the Hobbs family chop
shop in Samoa, with plenty of explosions and
bare-knuckle scraps along the way.
Also joining the franchise is David Leitch,
the stunt expert and director who helmed
John Wick (with director Chad Stahelski) and
Deadpool 2. For Leitch, his challenge was to
take the 18-year-old series in a new direction,
emphasising hand-to-hand combat and as
many practical stunts as possible while still
remaining true to the series’ history. “There’s a
common thread in all [Fast movies] where they
have great action, they have great characters
and there’s a sense of family,” Leitch says. “So if
we keep those themes alive in our version of
a Fast movie, then I think we’re gonna be OK.”
“The early vision was, ‘Yes, we’re gonna be
badass; yes, we’re gonna be all the things that
a Fast & Furious movie is, with huge action set
pieces and great fun dialogue,’ ” Johnson adds.
“But we also wanted to make sure that we had
a s--tload of comedy.”FAST & FURIOUS
PRESENTS: HOBBS & SHAW
Idris Elba co-stars as
Brixton, a practically
bulletproof soldier.