The 10th installment of Universal’s Fast & Furious action movie series is getting an infusion of muscle.
Jason Momoa is in final negotiations to join Vin Diesel and the rest of the starry ensemble cast in what is being called Fast & Furious 10 as a working title. And while plot details are being muffled, the Aquaman actor could be one of the film’s villains. Universal had no comment.
Justin Lin, who returned to the franchise with 2021’s F9: The Fast Saga, is back in the director’s chair. Longtime stars Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Sung Kang are also returning for the 10th installment. Charlize Theron, who first appeared in the eighth film, The Fate of the Furious, and returned for F9, is also expected to be back.
Diesel and Lin are producing.
Diesel wanted Dwayne Johnson — who appeared in the fifth through eighth films, as well as spinoff Hobbs & Shaw — to return to the franchise after skipping F9 and courted him both privately and publicly, the latter via social media. After a November Instagram post where Diesel pleaded for the former WWE star to come back, Johnson said in a December interview that there was “no chance” of that, calling Diesel manipulative. The search was then on to find someone who could fill the needed quotient of star and muscle power. However, because the script is still a work in progress, it is unclear whether Momoa’s part is protagonistic or antagonistic in nature, or perhaps even both.
In recent years, the Fast movies have stayed pumped and relevant not only by amping up the scale of the stunts but by beefing up the call sheet with turns by Theron, Johnson, Jason Statham and John Cena, even throwing Helen Mirren into the mix.
It is unclear who else would return for Fast 10, which shoots this spring. Universal currently has the movie set for a May 19, 2023, release.
Momoa wrapped shooting the Aquaman sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, last year and has Slumberland, an epic fantasy based on the Winsor McCay comic strip from the early 20th century, due out from Netflix later this year.
(Yahoo exclusive)
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