A long, long time ago (2017), Tyrese Gibson embarked on what seemed like a mostly one-way feud with his Fast & Furious co-star Dwayne Johnson for daring to star in a spin-off movie with Jason Statham. That movie, Hobbs & Shaw, is here, and it is not doing well—at least in Tyrese’s eyes.
The movie brought in $180.8 million internationally and $60.8 million domestically, and took over the No. 1 spot at the box office domestically from The Lion King. These are decent numbers, but they are nothing in comparison to the original Fast & Furious canon; as USA Today notes, the last two entries in the franchise that will outlive all of us both brought in over $1 billion in ticket sales.
This is exactly what Gibson warned Johnson about! At least, that’s part of what I gathered from his public tantrums about Johnson’s decision to split off from the Fast & Furious family, which frequently bordered on incoherent.
In an Instagram post that has since been deleted (but dutifully captured by The Shade Room), Gibson taunted Johnson over his box office showing, which again, was pretty good: “I have to show my respects for one thing…. He tried…….. Folks called me a hater…. Attacked me for speaking out…..Breaking up the family clearly doesn’t have the value that one would assume it does.” The caption gets cut off there, but Page Six has the rest of it:
“You know what maybe just maybe… The Rock and the crew will come dance with us again for #Fast10 we can all hug it out and get back to giving the true fans who have supported this franchise for 20 years WHAT they want……..No hating I’m just pointing out the facts,” Gibson, who played Roman Pearce in the longrunning franchise, continued. “#FastFamily has more value as the #FastFamily its [sic] ok.”
Contrary to what he’s saying, it definitely seems like he’s hating, especially since he deleted the Instagram, but that’s just one woman’s opinion!
I am certainly not a member of the #FastFamily (although I absolutely would join if I was given the offer to). Part of being a family, fast or not, is respecting each other’s journeys, especially money-making ones, so long as they do not harm another individual or group. It seems like The Rock hasn’t done that—except, maybe he’s hurt Universal Picture’s bottom line a tiny bit. He’ll be fine, money-wise, and Tyrese will also be fine, ego-wise, because they are both bursting with cash and pompousness, respectively (and maybe also inversely, but that is not for me to say, at least not at this juncture).
Gibson may have gotten the last laugh, but we have no way of knowing whether Johnson is also having a laugh, because he has not commented on Gibson’s childish antics. Consider this beef squashed—for now—but let’s not rule out further beefing; if there’s one thing this franchise has taught us, it’s that these guys are stuck with each other.