The Rock seems like a nice guy. One of the nicest in the film industry, on the surface, at least. So when he put one of his Fast & Furious co-stars on blast the other day, it struck most of us as a surprise. We started doing the math to backtrack and see who it could be. Tyrese took his name off the list, and newcomers like Scott Eastwood and Kurt Russell seemed to have too little history with the series to have much beef with one of its biggest stars. Well, now we think we know who the beef was with, and it's none other than franchise founding father Vin Diesel.
Truthfully, a lot of people paying attention to the franchise would have guessed Vin Diesel as the target of Dwayne Johnson's epic on-set rant, but it's TMZ that is going on the record to now say that Rock and Vin had words, and Vin Diesel wrapped production on Fast 8 without settling his dispute with his muscle-bound co-star. The gossip outlet reports that Diesel and Johnson "spoke privately" after the former confronted Rock about his confrontational Instagram post. In that post, The Rock referred to one of his male co-stars as a candy ass, and said that his blood was boiling because of the way that this co-star behaved on set.
TMZ goes on to report that the feud really is about "big egos," but says that the on-set beef won't affect production at all. The Rock had wrapped filming on Fast 8, and Diesel worked all the way through his final day on the set, gathering his things and leaving immediately after being done, according to the report.
From here, we can only speculate. But if you look at the facts, there are certain conclusions that can be drawn. Vin Diesel, as mentioned, is a founding father of the Fast & Furious universe. He recently lost his other partner on the film, Paul Walker, after the actor died in a car accident while still working on Furious 7. Everyone involved with the franchise agreed that the show must go on, but for The Rock, it might have been one sequel too many.
Dwayne Johnson has been stealing a little bit of the spotlight away from Vin Diesel ever since he burst on the Fast scene in Fast Five. The former wrestler plays Hobbs, an agent originally hired to track down Diesel's criminal, Dominic Toretto, but he was such a good fit in the franchise that they eventually wrote Hobbs in as a member of the "family." Is Vin tired of The Rock earning most of the Fast 8 headlines? Is everyone getting a little tired of keeping this franchise afloat after eight movies? Someone call Michael Winslow and ask him how the mood was on the set of Police Academy: Mission to Moscow.
At least we know what it would look like if The Rock and Vin Diesel ever came to blows:
Fast 8 is finishing up its filming, so this beef likely won't affect the sequel. What do you think? Is it OK that two major stars in an action franchise are fighting? Does it matter, so long as it doesn't affect what happens on screen? Is the notion of "family" in the Fast & Furious series bogus? Weigh in below.
