John Cena Compliments Safety On Fast And Furious 9 Set

John Cena in Bumblebee
(Image credit: (Paramount))

John Cena start to 2020 isn't exactly with box office glory thanks to Dolittle looking to be a massive flop, but that’s not the kind of trend that’s going to follow the WWE wrestler-turned-actor. This summer he’ll join Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and the rest of the crew for the highly-anticipated Fast and Furious 9. As a newcomer in the massive franchise, Cena shared what surprised him on set. In his words:

How awesome they make it look and how absolutely safe it is. On film, I will cheat death but it’s so safe. I had no fear in any of the processes. When I saw small renderings of what it’s going to look like, I’m like, ‘What the fuck?’ It’s awesome and I think by making the actors feel that sense of like, ‘Hey man, we’ve set this up so you are going to be all right. Just go for it.’ You get the best performance from your actors rather than somebody going, ‘I don’t know about this.’ You know the famous last words of a stuntman:’“I think you’ll probably be okay.’ You never have that sort of environment. It was unbelievably safe but also unbelievably creative.

When audiences gaze upon the many jawdropping action set pieces within the Fast and Furious movies, the first place our minds go is “That’s gotta be so dangerous!” John Cena walked onto set certainly expecting some major badassery. But, one thing he was plesantly surprised with was how badass the safety was on Fast and Furious 9.

The crew has been working on this franchise for almost 20 years now, so John Cena may be coming in at a time when they have it down to a science. The Dolittle actor shared to Collider that he’s worked with stunt teams before and oftentimes right before the scene is shot there’s often a nervous energy on set on whether the set piece can be pulled off. Not on Fast & Furious 9.

It’s a great compliment to pay a franchise that is best known for their heavy stuntwork and death-defying action sequences! John Cena confirmed that he definitely got to be part of a few of the adrenaline-high scenes in the upcoming movie. Fans will get their first taste of what the movie has to offer when the first trailer for Fast and Furious 9 premieres at the Road to F9 concert in Miami on January 31 – just ahead of the Super Bowl.

John Cena’s latest movie is alongside Robert Downey Jr. in Dolittle as a polar bear named Yoshi. The movie is looking to lose a lot of money after it’s low-performing first weekend. The $175 million budget film has only managed $65 million worldwide so far at the box office despite being packed with voice talent including Emma Thompson, Rami Malek, Tom Holland and Selena Gomez. A particularly strange scene involving RDJ and a dragon’s butt has audiences talking.

The actor has also joined James Gunn’s incredible ensemble for The Suicide Squad currently in production at Warner Bros with a summer 2021 release date. Fast and Furious 9 hits theaters on May 22, 2020.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.