The ninth installment in the core Fast and the Furious franchise was delayed from April 19, 2019 to April 10, 2020 on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a not officially announced spinoff surrounding Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw a.k.a. Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham respectively is reportedly coming July 26, 2019 per a report released Thursday.
That report from The Hollywood Reporter said a reason for the Fast and Furious 9 delay is to better work for potential directors’ schedules. Franchise veteran Justin Lin, the director for Fast & Furious 3-6, is supposedly the number one candidate.
But star Tyrese Gibson took to Instagram on Wednesday to say “congratulations” to Johnson and his production company for the delay and putting everyone’s favorite stone in front of his Furious family. The star references Johnson’s and Statham’s characters and the 2016 movie adaption of Baywatch, which starred Johnson and was reported to have been financially unsuccessful in places like The Hollywood Reporter and Forbes.
“Gn folks see you in 2020 April #FastFamily right? Nah….. it’s about #TeamDewayne,” Gibson said on Instagram as a caption to a promotional image for the film’s new release date. “#3yrs will it be worth the wait? #NoShaw just Hobbs will this be another #BayWatch?”
Anybody stressing over the wait for another Fast and Furious movie have eight films to sift through. The eighth film was released on digital formats back in June while becoming the 11th highest grossing movie of all time.