Is Jason Statham Joining The Good Guys In Fast & Furious 8?
Latest set video sparks a big theory.
After the billion and a half dollar haul of Fast & Furious 7, Universal are being smart with their marketing for the follow-up, released in April, 2017. There's weekly set visit videos, lots of posts from The Rock to his many social media followers and a drip feed of little pieces of information (like the revelation that there might be a Hobbs spin-off). Basically, the studio want us to talk about the film for the next year a lot.
Inevitably, the sequel is going to make a lot of money anyway thanks to the last one, but the film-makers have made some stunningly smart decisions already. Director F Gary Gray is an inspired touch, as is bringing in the likes of Charlize Theron to ramp up the acting credentials, and stacking the cast with great returning characters is also very clever.
That returning cast includes Jason Statham, the villain from last time out who had a seemingly undying need for revenge against Dom's crew for the treatment of his brother. Ultimately he ended up in prison, with Agent Hobbs' threat that if he ever escaped he'd be there to bury him ringing in his ears. But he's definitely out, and it looks like he has a very intriguing role in the sequel, as teased by this weeks' set visit video showing the first scene uniting the whole crew..
What you have to ask yourself is why Deckard Shaw is there in the same locale. Obviously it's also interesting that The Rock's Agent Hobbs is there too, but with Johnson himself promising an expanded role it would be no surprise for him to become a fully fledged member of the Toretto's crew.
Kurt Russell's Mr Nobody is also there, and the board room-style get up and the fact that Deckard Shaw turns up wearing a suit suggests only one thing. Mr Nobody is building a special black ops team to take down new villain Cipher's threat, hiring Toretto's team and adding some ringers - Hobbs, possibly Eva Mendes' Monica Fuentes and Shaw.
Even from the brief look at the scene, it looks suspiciously like it's set up perfectly for Mr Nobody to spring the surprise on Dom and his team, with inevitably explosive consequences. It would make sense, in that respect for Shaw to have dealt with Cipher before, and to have been perhaps offered a pardon to help bring her down.
Delightfully, that means Hobbs and Shaw will have to work together, forming a sort of Hulk/Thor uneasy alliance in The Avengers. I am completely down for that.