Vin Diesel Says Charlize Theron & Helen Mirren Are Back For 'Fast 9' & Will Surely Be Enough To Replace The Rock & Jason Statham

We are just under a month away from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham bringing their action chops to the first “Fast & Furious” spin-off film “Hobbs & Shaw.” And since Vin Diesel is the godfather of all things ‘Fast,’ you would think that the actor would take the time to promote the upcoming spin-off on his Instagram. Instead, Diesel wants everyone to know that they’re currently filming “Fast 9,” and some familiar faces will be joining the proceedings. And no, those names aren’t The Rock or Statham.

In a new Instagram video, the actor updated fans on the current status of the highly-anticipated sequel, while also dropping a couple of casting nuggets, signaling that a couple of famous Oscar-winning actresses from previous iterations of the ‘Fast’ franchise will be making their return to the series next year.

READ MORE: John Cena Joins ‘Fast & Furious 9’; Dwayne Johnson Not Expected To Return

“We’ve got a lot of the original cast here, including Oscar winners like Charlize Theron and Helen Mirren,” Diesel said.

That’s right, somehow, someway (money being the most likely reason), Diesel was able to get Theron and Mirren to come back to the ‘Fast’ universe for at least one more time. In the case of Theron, this might be a way to spin-off her character into a new film series, which has been reportedly in development for some time now.

For those not up to date on your ‘Fast & Furious’ knowledge (and forgive me if I mess up the deets, as I’m far from the biggest ‘Fast’ aficionado around here), Theron is set to reprise her role of Cipher, a hacker extraordinaire and cyberterrorist that plagued the heroes in the last film, “The Fate of the Furious.” Mirren, on the other hand, plays Magdalene Shaw, the mother of anti-heroes Deckard (Statham) and Owen (Luke Evans), though the former will not be featured in the film.

READ MORE: Michelle Rodriguez Signs On For ‘Fast & Furious 9’ Only After Franchise Hires Female Writer For Sequel

As Diesel mentions, filming is underway for “Fast 9,” with a release date of May 22, 2020.

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