They may be a tight-knit group on screen, but it looks like the Fast & Furious family is imploding off-screen. Since the release of the first spinoff of this mega-franchise, Hobbs & Shaw, we’ve already covered a couple of different stories that are slightly controversial. This includes Michelle Rodriguez slamming veteran Fast & Furious writer Chris Morgan, claiming that he has nothing to do with the ‘justice for Han’ storyline he’s been talking about. Weird, I know. Now, Tyrese Gibson, who has been beefing with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson since The Fate of the Furious has used a Lowyat.net article to throw shade at the Great One on Instagram.
This past Monday, we reported that Hobbs & Shaw ‘s opening weekend box office gross ($US 60 million in North America) is the lowest in the franchise since Tokyo Drift‘s $US 23 million in 2006. Tyrese Gibson, who plays motormouth Roman Pearce in the franchise, screenshotted the headlines of the article and in a now-deleted Instagram post, took jabs at the film’s so-called lack of success. Gibson also criticized The Rock for breaking up the Fast & Furious family. Instagram page TheShadeRoom managed to screenshot Gibson’s post before it was deleted:
Tyrese’s caption read:
“I have to show my respects for one thing… He tried… Folks called me a hater … And attacked me for speaking out … Breaking up the family clearly doesn’t have the value that one would assume it does … You know what maybe just maybe … The Rock and the crew will come dance with us again for #Fast10. We can all hug it out and get back to giving the true fans who have supported this franchise for 20 years WHAT they want … No hating I’m just pointing out the facts. #FastFamily has more value as the #FastFamily its ok… The Rock still is still one of the biggest movie stars in the world and he’s not hurting for work… I have 2 franchise films and he has 15 so there won’t be any tears on his pillow tonight.”
The actor, who’s consistently one of the bright spots of the franchise went on to say that Hobbs & Shaw‘s $US 180 million ($US 60 million in North America + $US 120 million outside of North America) opening weekend gross is “NOT a big win.” Tyrese continued by saying:
“In this day and age where everyone wants to be safe and sit on their hands and not speak on real s**t … When you do get attacked and well … That’s that. Again my respects cause he tried his best … The world is clearly used to being severed [sic] its Thanksgiving meal a certain way … they want the table to ‘include’ all its flavors and all of its usual ingredients.”
I can’t help but wonder if Tyrese Gibson actually read the entirety of my article before proceeding to take swipes at Hobbs & Shaw and one of its leading men. In the article, I mentioned that while the popularity of the Fast & Furious franchise has been dwindling in North America, it still is a huge deal in China, in which Hobbs & Shaw has not opened yet. Furious 7 raked in a staggering $US 390 million there and The Fate of the Furious, $US 392 million. The Rock, individually, is a red hot commodity in China too. The Diehard ripoff Skyscraper raked in over $US 98 million there, which is about one-third of its total global gross of $US 304 million.
This isn’t the first time that Tyrese has reacted this way. The actor previously bashed The Rock after the release of the eighth film in the franchise, The Fate of the Furious. Then too, he expressed his frustration towards the spinoff and The Rock.
Hobbs & Shaw is currently playing in Malaysian cinemas.
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