As if watching Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham trade friendly barbs and punches for two hours wasn’t enough, Hobbs and Shaw found itself quite the villain in Idris Elba. The Wire star (who hasn’t considered playing James Bond, wink wink) is playing the delightfully-named Brixton in the Fast and Furious spinoff; not much is known about the character, other than his record is “UNDEFEATED” and that he’s the “baddest villain the franchise has ever seen.”
Johnson’s intention with Hobbs and Shaw was to find someone who “could create a villain who is formidable, viable, better, stronger, and more diabolical,” someone like Luther/Stringer Bell/the Sexiest Man Alive himself. “I’ve known Idris for some time now, and we felt like he was the perfect guy to come in and be our main villain. Our goal with Idris to make him the baddest villain the franchise has ever seen. Coming in, he is undefeated. 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 Fast and Furious movies are wonderful, obviously, but the franchise isn’t great at villains, or at least villains who stay villains (looking at you, Deckard Shaw). Johnny Tran, Carter Verone, Cipher — Hobbs and Shaw deserve a better class of criminal, and Idris Elba is gonna give it to them.
Johnson also revealed that the spinoff was originally supposed to come out after Furious 7, but following Paul Walker’s death, “We felt like, let’s put that on hold and let’s put all of our focus and attention on Fast 8.” Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (which is the official title!) opens on August 2, 2019.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
