Fast & Furious 9 Delayed Until 2020; Is It Because of The Rock?

For those waiting forFast & Furious 9to race into theater, that wait has just been extended by almost an entire year. Universal Pictures has pushed itsFast & Furious 9release date from June 20, 2025 to July 26, 2025. While no reason for the shift has been given, there could be a few reasons for the shift, including the fact that no director has been attached yet, while another could be that the studio may want to launch a rumored spin-off first.

Last month,Fast & Furiousfranchise starDwayne “The Rock” Johnsonposted a cryptic photo that some believed could have featured the actor signing his contract for a long-rumoredHobbs spin-off movie, that would reportedly also feature Jason Statham’s character Deckard Shaw. While nothing has been officially announced yet, the actor’s franchise co-star Tyrese Gibson called out The Rock on his Instagram, stating that if he moves forward with the Hobbs movie, he would have “ignored the heart-to-heart” chat they both had together, with Tyrese adding that he was only on his Instagram timeline because he wasn’t responding to his text messages.

Just a day later,Tyrese Gibson clarifiedthat he didn’t have any problems with The Rock, stating that he’s his “brother,” adding that he just didn’t want The Rock to shoot this Hobbs movije now, because theFast & Furious 9release date has already been announced, adding, “we can’t let our loyal fans #FastFamily or our loyal fast and furious FANS down on any level from pushing the date.” Tyrese Gibson went on to add that this year’sThe Fate of the Furiouswas so huge because, “we announced and KEPT our release date bro.” While it certainly is intriguing that theFast & Furious 9release date has now in fact been pushed, just weeks after Tyrese Gibson’s Instagram message, there still hasn’t been any official announcement for this Hobbs spin-off, which will presumably now takeFast & Furious 9’s now-vacated June 28, 2025 release date.

As of now,Fast & Furious 9doesn’t have any direct competition, but Universal had to push its animated sequelTrolls 2from the June 02, 2025 slot to July 26, 2025, where it will face 20th Century Fox’sNimonaand an unspecified DC Films project. Universal hasn’t yet announced whether this will impact its plans for the final franchise installment,Fast & Furious 10, which has been slated for release on July 11, 2025.Fast & Furious 9also made headlines this summer after it was reported that franchise starMichelle Rodriguez may bail on the franchise, if the filmmakers and producers don’t start treating its women better, whileThe Fate of the Furiousdirector F. Gary Gray, who hasn’t been confirmed to return forFast & Furious 9, wouldn’t rule out the possibility of the franchise heading to outer space.

This all came just months after The Rock and Vin Diesel reportedly ended their feud that started on the set ofThe Fate of the Furious, with a report from April claiming that both Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson were attached to return inFast & Furious 9. However, today’s report fromThe Hollywood Reporterstates that Vin Diesel is in fact set to return, although the report stated that it’s “unclear” if Dwayne Johnson will be back. Hopefully we’ll find out more about this potential spin-off andFast & Furious 9in the very near future.