Hobbs And Shaw Sounds Less Fast And Furious, More Spy Thriller With Muscles

Production has yet to begin on the Fast & Furious spin-off Hobbs and Shaw--starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Jason Statham--but some very interesting details about the movie have been revealed. Though the new film will be firmly planted in the Fast & Furious world, it sounds quite a bit different from the rest of the franchise's entries.

"We're diving into their world. I think we want to have our own take on the Fast universe," director David Leitch, who also helms Deadpool 2 tells Collider. "It will definitely have elements of the original DNA, but it is more drifting into Shaw's spy word and Dwayne's agent world and, obviously, we want to build on their relationship, their conflict, their banter. That chemistry that they have between them, that's sort of what's driving the movie."

That certainly sounds like a departure from the muscle car-heavy antic of the rest of the movies. Instead, Johnson, Statham, and Leitch seem to be teeing up a spy thriller loaded with adrenaline, explosions, and the rest of the Fast & Furious hallmarks. However, it also sounds like the movie is going back to basics.

"I think it's going to be a little bit more grounded because it's the beginning. It's an origin story, in a sense," the director says. "It's not an origin story, but we're starting a franchise. So we want it to be a little bit more grounded, a little bit more character-centric. We're going to set up the stakes for these guys and their relationship, but we're also going to have some great set pieces and some action that you'd expect from that type of franchise."

While Fate of the Furious, the eighth movie in the franchise, found Hobbs (Johnson) and Shaw (Statham) putting their troubled history behind them for the good of the team, it's good to know this spin-off won't simply assume they work together perfectly as a team now. Instead, it will build that sense of familiarity between them as they work together to fight... whatever it is they're going to fight. Beyond that, it sounds like some other faces from the Fast universe could appear in the movie.

"I don't really want to get into who would be in it and who wouldn't be in it," he says. "I think that’s probably a little sensitive stuff right now. I think it would be a fun nod to have a couple of the characters come by and make their appearances. But I think we have a really strong point of view that we want to create our own characters for this world."

Fingers crossed that Vin Diesel shows up just to say the word "family," then quickly disappears. Whatever the case, chances are Tyrese Gibson won't be joining the cast. Hobbs and Shaw is in theaters on July 26, 2019.