Earlier last year, the gimmick of the Spin-Off was dealt a death-card in the form of “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” where the troubled production couldn’t escape the looming shadow of Harrison Ford or impress an audience that the franchise, at this point, seemed to guarantee. But these sort of failures are not always the case: “Creed” proved itself a poignant modernization of the “Rocky” franchise; the most recent major spin-off, “Bumblebee,” gave fresh breath to an exhausted series. Simply, the spin-off’s objective is a balance of re-invention and commercialization: making something new and profitable from a brand the audience is familiar with. Even the “Deadpool” series could classify as a successful spin-off for branching out from its seemingly-doomed genesis (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”). Director of “Deadpool 2,” David Leitch, now helms another attempt at expanding the scale of the already-enormously-expanded universe of Fast and Furious with the obviously-titled: “Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.”
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It makes sense with the passing of Paul Walker, and sustained familiarity with faces like Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and Ludacris, that audiences are latching onto the new characters of the franchise, Herculean Luke Hobbs (played indelibly by Dwayne Johnson) and criminal mastermind Deckard Shaw (an equally-exciting Jason Statham). The bromance between the two in the last entry was enough to warrant their own collected adventure. And so, for the first time, the series breaks from the “family” of the franchise and goes down a new road.
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While new stars and faces create intrigue for each new installment, new directors have also stood out as bringing their own individual techniques and impulses. Essentially, all these directors need to do is escalate the action, topping the peak of the previous director. David Leitch is a prime choice for this spin-off to reach a new franchise height, having proven his entertaining, wall-busting chops in the “John Wick” series, “Atomic Blonde,” and “Deadpool 2.”
The ante is also always upped by new formidable opponents to take on the furious heroes. Who better than Idris Elba to join the cast as the mysterious villain, Brixton. Dwayne Johnson had this to say about Elba’s role in the new film:
“Our goal with Idris to make him the baddest villain the franchise has ever seen. Coming in, he is undefeated,” he told Entertainment Weekly recently. “And for a guy who is undefeated, three men enter and either one man leaves or two leave. And I say that respectfully because there have been so many bad guys who we’ve had over the years. But Idris is the perfect guy. Obviously, he’s a phenomenal actor, really brings a great weight and quality to the role — and a viability. He’s a big man and he’s a legitimate badass and a legitimate martial artist.”
The new spin-off comes with its doubts and hesitations, but it would be hard to find anyone who isn’t excited for a Johnson-Statham-Elba showdown.
“Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw” will be unleashed on August 2, 2019.
