Vin Diesel wants to end Dwayne Johnson feud for the sake of 'Fast 10': 'Do not leave the franchise idle'
After walking Paul Walker's daughter Meadow down the aisle, Vin Diesel has a proposal for Dwayne Johnson: Come back to the Fast and Furious fold.
Though Diesel and Johnson have been publicly dinging each other in the five years since butting heads on the set of 2017's The Fate of the Furious, the actor best known for playing Dom Toretto in the long-running franchise appears ready to finish his feud with the former wrestler.
Watch: Vin Diesel asks Dwayne Johnson to return for Fast and Furious 10
In an Instagram post shared on Sunday, Diesel wrote, "My little brother Dwayne... the time has come. The world awaits the finale of Fast 10. As you know, my children refer to you as Uncle Dwayne in my house. There is not a holiday that goes by that they and you don't send well wishes... but the time has come. Legacy awaits."
Diesel went on to reference an obligation to his late co-star Walker, who died in a single-accident collision in November 2013, to keep the Fast and Furious franchise ticking.
"I told you years ago that I was going to fulfill my promise to Pablo [Walker]," he told Johnson. "I swore that we would reach and manifest the best Fast in the finale that is 10! I say this out of love... but you must show up — do not leave the franchise idle. You have a very important role to play. Hobbs can't be played by no other. I hope that you rise to the occasion and fulfill your destiny."
Johnson made his first appearance as Luke Hobbs in 2011's Fast Five, reprising the role in Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious. After clashing with Diesel on the set of the latter film, Johnson embarked on his own Hobbs spinoff, 2019's Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw and did not appear in F9, released earlier this year.
Johnson — who is said to have fueled the feud with a since-deleted 2016 Instagram post calling out "candy asses" who don't "conduct themselves as stand-up men and true professionals" — addressed his beef with Diesel during an interview with Vanity Fair published last month.
Though he stands by what he wrote in his Instagram post, the Rock acknowledged that "it caused a firestorm."
He added, "Yet interestingly enough... [it was] as if every single crew member found their way to me and either quietly thanked me or sent me a note. But, yeah, it wasn’t my best day, sharing that. I shouldn’t have shared that. Because at the end of the day, that goes against my DNA. I don’t share things like that. And I take care of that kind of bulls*** away from the public. They don’t need to know that. That’s why I say it wasn’t my best day.”
He went on to describe himself and Diesel as "philosophically two different people" on "two separate ends of the spectrum."
The same interview saw Johnson comically responding to Diesel's assertion to Men's Health this summer that the feud was a strategic form of "tough love" designed to draw the best performance out of the former WWF star; Diesel dubbed the filmmaking approach as "not Fellini-esque."
“One part of me feels like there’s no way I would dignify any of that bulls*** with an answer," Johnson told Vanity Fair of Diesel's comments. "But here’s the truth. I’ve been around the block a lot of times. Unlike him, I did not come from the world of theater. And, you know, I came up differently and was raised differently. And I came from a completely different culture and environment. And I go into every project giving it my all. And if I feel that there’s some things that need to be squared away and handled and taken care of, then I do it. And it’s just that simple. So when I read that, just like everybody else, I laughed. I laughed hard. We all laughed. And somewhere I’m sure Fellini is laughing too.”
Johnson has yet to publicly comment on Diesel's offer.
Watch: Dwayne Johnson addresses his feud with Vin Diesel