Dwayne Johnson's 'Fast and Furious' Role Was Originally Meant for Tommy Lee Jones
An interesting piece of trivia has been revealed courtesy of Vin Diesel, whose energetic social network presence means that his fans get to learn lots of things via his thank you videos and the like.
“Back in the fifth film, when I was asking ‘Who should I work with?’ The reason why we brought Dwayne Johnson into Fast Five was because of you," Diesel said in the video, referring to fans. "There was a girl named Jen Kelly who said, ‘I would love to see you guys work together on-screen.’"
"And so, we gave a role that was initially written for Tommy Lee Jones but we gave it to Dwayne, and he shined in it.” So, Dwayne Johnson came into the franchise instead of Tommy Lee Jones, which is no small change.
Hobbs made his first appearance in Fast 5 when the series gave itself a soft-reboot and turned itself into something of a full-blown action series. Diesel also credits the fans for the studio's decision to bring back Michelle Rodrigeuz as Letty, and Jason Statham's casting.
“Wait ’til you see him in Fast 8,” he teased. “He’s really pretty amazing in it.” In the same video, Diesel revealed that the Guardians of the Galaxy will appear in Avengers: Infinity War. So the actor's tongue is pretty loose these days.
Source: Collider
