Nothing puzzles and delights quite like the long-standing feud between Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel. Their discord dates back to 2016, when the costars allegedly clashed on the set of The Fate of the Furious. The pair hasn’t shared the screen since then, with Johnson instead opting to star in the Diesel-less spinoff, Hobbs & Shaw. But as the 10th film in the franchise approaches, Diesel is extending a social media olive branch to Johnson.
“My little brother Dwayne… the time has come,” Diesel began his Sunday Instagram post, which reads like the script for a bad mafia movie. “The world awaits the finale of Fast 10. As you know, my children refer to you as Uncle Dwayne in my house. There is not a holiday that goes by that they and you don’t send well wishes… but the time has come. Legacy awaits.”
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He continued, “I told you years ago that I was going to fulfill my promise to Pablo [Paul Walker]. I swore that we would reach and manifest the best Fast in the finale that is 10! I say this out of love… but you must show up, do not leave the franchise idle you have a very important role to play. Hobbs can’t be played by no other. I hope that you rise to the occasion and fulfill your destiny.”
Diesel’s mea culpa refers to Johnson as his “little brother,” a nickname that the actor expressed his displeasure with in the November issue of Vanity Fair. When asked about Diesel’s assertion that Johnson “knows he only has one big brother in the film world, and that’s me,” Johnson quipped, “I have one big brother and it’s my half brother. And that’s it.”
In the V.F. cover story, Johnson also reflected on a now-deleted Instagram post in which he seemingly disparaged Diesel and ended with the hashtag #ZeroToleranceForCandyAsses. “A candy ass is something you don’t want to be,” he explained. “And the best way that I can describe a candy ass is: Life is so much easier, I have found, when you are not full of shit. And a candy ass is completely full of shit.”
While he doesn’t apologize for his ill feelings, Johnson did say that he regrets sharing them publicly. “It caused a firestorm,” he remembers. “Yet interestingly enough…[it was] as if every single crew member found their way to me and either quietly thanked me or sent me a note. But, yeah, it wasn’t my best day, sharing that. I shouldn’t have shared that. Because at the end of the day, that goes against my DNA.”
During a meeting in Johnson’s trailer after the post went viral, he says it became “crystal clear that we are two separate ends of the spectrum.” Johnson claimed that he and Diesel are “philosophically two different people, and we approach the business of moviemaking in two very different ways.” According to Johnson, Diesel’s philosophy appears to be in contrast to his own, which includes approaching co-workers “as equal partners—with respect and with humility, and being respectful of the process and every other human being who is putting in just as much time, just as much hard work and sweat equity, if not more.”
Diesel aired his version of events in a June Men’s Health interview, in which he chalked up their feud to his own “tough love” style, stopping just short of branding it “Fellini-esque.” Johnson gamely responded to the jab, telling V.F., “One part of me feels like there’s no way I would dignify any of that bullshit with an answer,” before later admitting, “I laughed. I laughed hard. We all laughed. And somewhere I’m sure Fellini is laughing too.”
With or without Johnson, Fast 10 is set to be released on April 7, 2023.
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