The Rock Didn’t Save Fast and Furious (But Made It Much Better)

Dwayne Johnson’s star power is generally credited with Fast and Furious’ transition into a blockbuster series, and although The Rock didn’t really rescue Fast and Furious, as many think, he did make the tale much better.

From Fast Five through The Fate of the Furious, The Rock’s Hobbs was at the core of the Fast and Furious trilogy, albeit his screen time and importance to the storyline varied with each film.

The Rock did not return for F9 and is not likely to feature in Fast X or Fast & Furious 11, putting into perspective just how important Dwayne Johnson was to the Fast and Furious series.

While it may seem that Fast and Furious opted to cast Dwayne Johnson as Hobbs in Fast Five in order to elevate the brand with a huge action actor, that is not the case, according to Vin Diesel.

During a Facebook live in 2017, Vin Diesel claimed that the Hobbs role was initially intended for Tommy Lee Jones, with the notion of an experienced, maybe retired agent tracking down Dominic Toretto and his group.

However, when a fan remarked on how awesome it would be for Vin Diesel to collaborate alongside The Rock, the Dominic Toretto actor/Fast and Furious producer chose to cast Dwayne Johnson in the Hobbs role.

The choice to cast The Rock as Hobbs instead of Tommy Lee Jones in Fast Five proved to be correct. To be sure, seeing Tommy Lee Jones as a Fast and Furious villain would have been fascinating, but what The Rock contributed to Fast Five is one of the reasons why the film worked so well.

It was logical to anticipate that The Rock would return for the subsequent Fast and Furious films, but Hobbs’ relevance to the tale also coincided with Dwayne Johnson’s ascent as a worldwide movie star, which certainly had an influence on the Fast and Furious series.

From Fast Five through The Fate of the Furious, all of which featured The Rock, the box office numbers for Fast and Furious only improved.

As a result, a natural conclusion is that The Rock is the reason Fast and Furious became so much more popular in the previous decade, a view that Dwayne Johnson has never denied.

When you examine how Fast Five’s heist adventure was already planned to grow the series, as well as how F9 and Hobbs & Shaw compare in terms of box office, the notion that The Rock single-handedly salvaged the Fast and Furious franchise falls apart.

Fast & Furious 5’s Rock Changed Fast & Furious For The Better

While the argument that The Rock rescued Fast and Furious is debatable, Dwayne Johnson definitely modify the Fast Saga for the better following Fast Five.

Although nostalgia for the early Fast and Furious films, particularly Tokyo Drift, may be used to criticise what the franchise has become, the more action-oriented approach is what has made the series a box office success.

The Rock was clearly not the only person responsible for this shift, but he exemplified on screen how the Fast and Furious films were now striving for something far broader.

Instead of generic criminal leaders like Verone or Braga, Fast Five featured Hobbs, a far more visceral enemy who could battle Dominic Toretto.

At a time when action blockbusters were becoming associated with superhero films, the Fast and Furious trilogy provided a welcome breath of new air in the genre.

As a result, having an action movie star like The Rock team up with other names like Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and Michelle Rodriguez sent a crucial message to the industry about how the Fast and Furious movies will compete for the audience’s attention with other established IPs.

Fast & Furious Assisted The Rock in Becoming An Action Star

Fast and Furious became a blockbuster action series thanks to The Rock, but the Fast and Furious films also helped Dwayne Johnson establish himself as one of the world’s greatest movie stars.

Prior to Fast Five, which earned $626 million at the box office, The Rock’s highest-grossing film was The Mummy Returns, which earned $435 million.

Dwayne Johnson’s box office returns skyrocketed after Fast Five, and as of 2022, The Rock’s films had grossed more than $5 billion. Despite the fact that Dwayne Johnson can now launch franchises with his star power alone,

The Rock’s highest-grossing films are still his last two Fast and Furious flicks, Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious.

In fact, Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious are Dwayne Johnson’s only billion-dollar films, while Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle came close with a solid $961 million total.

[Disclaimer: This news has been made on the basis of information received from the website. News Kosh does not confirm this from its side.]