If you are a Fast and the Furious fan--and if you clicked on this article there's a good chance you are--you may already know there has been quite a bit of drama related to the franchise and its upcoming spinoff starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. Most of this conflict has come from Tyrese Gibson, who has been vocal about not liking that the franchise is getting a spinoff. While he's seemed pretty aggravated in his previous comments, he now says that the real reason he is upset is not that there will be a spinoff but that Fast and Furious 9 is being pushed back to make room for the spinoff. He said:
It's not a conflict, it's just, The Fate of the Furious is like a holiday. The Fast and the Furious family, the fans, the tribe--the people that have been rocking with us for 16 years---you know pushing our release date back, it's only happened one time in the history of The Fast and the Furious. It's when we lost our brother Paul Walker. You know, so what's the reason we're pushing the release date back now? I just got a problem with Dwayne when it appears he's being selfish. It appears that he's so focused on furthering his own self-interest; he's making decisions from the seat that he's sitting.
This comment will likely pull at the heartstrings of some fans, as Tyrese Gibson lays his heart bare and even says the franchise only had to change release dates once prior, and that was because of Paul Walker's untimely death. In fast, Furious 7 was almost cancelled in the wake of the actor dying, so the fact that its release date ended up changing seems like small potatoes in comparison. In this case, though, the ninth movie in the franchise may actually have been pushed back not to make room for the spinoff, but to get the right director to work out for Fast and Furious 9. We'll have to wait and see how that shakes out, but things may not be as spinoff-centric as Gibson seems to think.
TMZ caught up with the actor in his limo, where Tyrese Gibson also revealed that he knows people think he has been hard on Dwayne Johnson, also saying that people are missing the point.
I dunno what they're doing, you know. Everybody coming at me like I'm hating on Dwayne for his spinoff. I'm not. The truth is, I just wish he was releasing it at a different time.
So, while his other comment does border on saying that Dwayne Johnson may be taking advantage of his popularity within the franchise, Tyrese Gibson also claims the real reason he is bummed out is that the release date is changing, as he always has a great time working with his Fast family. It probably also doesn't help that a big payday for the actor is going to be pushed back for a whole year as the main cast waits to get started on Fast and The Furious 9. This doesn't seem like a big enough deal that he would quit the franchise--unlike his co-star Michelle Rodriguez who has threatened to quit if the ladies don't get some love--but now that things have calmed down after his initial thoughts, he still seems frustrated with how things went down.
Regardless, fans will be able to catch the currently untitled spinoff in 2019 and the ninth movie in the franchise the following year, in 2020.
