They’re back! Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham brought laughs and impossible action to the first trailer for the Fast and the Furious spinoff, Hobbs & Shaw.
The video, released on Friday, February 1, shows Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Statham’s Deckard Shaw falling into old patterns as the perfectly paired frenemies team up to take down the big bad, played by Idris Elba.
“I’m dealing with the future of the planet. I’m the necessary shock to the system,” the 46-year-old Thor actor (a.k.a. Brixton) proclaims. “I am human evolutionary change. Bulletproof. Superhuman.”
Thus, in usual vague Fast and the Furious fashion, Hobbs and Shaw are brought in when the “mission” is “comprised.” The two are not thrilled about working together and rightly so. The former MI6 agent did try to kill the by-the-books lawman in Furious 7.
In addition to fast cars and lots of hitting, the trailer showcases another of the franchise’s staples: one-liners. “I’m trying to save the world, which, for the record, will be my fourth time ‘cause I’m really good at it,” Hobbs tells his equally sassy partner.
Inconceivable stunts also make their way into the spinoff. At one point, Brixton carries an unconscious Vanessa Kirby down the side of a skyscraper while Hobbs falls onto the baddie’s henchmen, beating them up one at a time as they quickly descend toward the waiting pavement. Shaw hilariously takes an elevator as Hobbs does all the work.
Hobbs & Shaw made headlines long before the first trailer’s debut. Johnson’s Fast and the Furious costar Tyrese Gibson blamed the Moana star, 46, for delaying the release of Fast and the Furious 9 to 2020 after news of the spinoff came out.
“He’s the reason we’re pushing the release date back now,” the singer, 40, told TMZ in October 2017. “I just got a problem with Dwayne, it appears that he’s being selfish, it appears that he’s so focused on furthering his own self-interests.”
Johnson spoke out about the spat during a July 2018 appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. “We haven’t talked at all,” he admitted. “That whole thing with Tyrese, it was pretty disappointing because I’ve been friends with Tyrese for a very long time. And, you know, I always feel like a beef requires two people to actually jump in it, and it was really one-sided and he had voiced his opinion a lot on social media.”
Hobbs & Shaw is set to hit theaters on August 2, 2019.
