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Given all the time we have on our hands these days, I’ve been crushing movie franchises.
Now, to be absolutely clear, I didn’t say I’ve been crushing movies, I said I’ve been crushing entire franchises: The Dark Knight, Pixar, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Matrix, and so on and so forth.
You see, as an ADD-riddled writer, I need some sort of background noise in order for my brain to properly function, so I usually just toss on one of these aforementioned movies in the background. And this weekend, Daddy is crushing the Fast & Furious franchise.
You see, the next film in the franchise, F9, was supposed to hit theaters in about six weeks, but because of The Big Cancel, it was pushed back to 2021, which means it’ll be another year until we get that pure, uncut Fast & Furious madness back in our lives.
Now, with a year between films, Universal Pictures is likely charting the course for the future of the franchise and are rumored to be eyeing Tom Cruise for a prominent role.
According to our sources – the same ones who told us Han was returning to the Fast & Furious franchise and Ryan Reynolds had a cameo in Hobbs & Shaw, not to mention that John Cena is playing Vin Diesel’s brother in F9 – Universal are planning on introducing a new character soon and they’re interested in none other than Tom Cruise – or someone of a similar level of fame if they can’t get him. Apparently, the plan is for him to show up in the closing moments of Hobbs & Shaw 2 as a set-up for future appearances.
It’s unclear what role this would be, but it seems likely that it’s the Eteon Director, which Keanu Reeves was originally in negotiations for. [via We Got This Covered]
The addition of a Cruise-like actor certainly tracks with the trajectory of the franchise, as they’ve added A-listers such as Charlize Theron and Kurt Russell to their ranks in recent years (in fact, Russell’s role was originally offered to Denzel Washington).
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Eric is a New York City-based writer who still isn’t quite sure how he’s allowed to have this much fun for a living and will tell anyone who listens that Gotham City is canonically in New Jersey. Follow him on Twitter @eric_ital for movie and soccer takes or contact him eric@brobible.com