What Really Went Down Between The Rock And Tyrese
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was once a WWE legend who dabbled in acting, but it seems like he didn't become a bona fide action star until he entered the billion-dollar Fast & Furious franchise as Luke Hobbs — a role originally written for, believe it or not, Tommy Lee Jones — in 2011's Fast Five.
However, by the time the eighth film in the franchise, The Fate of the Furious, rolled around, Johnson took the private behind-the-scenes drama public — sparking a feud with co-star Tyrese Gibson that would last years.
The online feud began in 2016 with a since-deleted Facebook post where The Rock blasted his male co-stars (via ABC News). After praising the "incredible" crew and praising the franchise for getting his "blood boiling," the former wrestler didn't hold back. "My female co-stars are always amazing and I love 'em. My male co-stars however are a different story," he said. "Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don't. The ones that don't are too chicken s*** to do anything about it anyway. Candy a****."
Flash forward to 2017, Tyrese Gibson took to Instagram to ask Dwayne Johnson not to "move forward" with the Fast & Furious spinoff, Hobbs & Shaw. "You will have purposely ignored the heart to heart moment we had in my sprinter," Gibson wrote. "I don't wanna hear from you until you remember what we talked about. I'm on your timeline cause you're not responding to my text messages – #FastFamily is just that a family........ We don't fly solo." So what could that message have been about?
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As it turned out, later that year (via Entertainment Weekly), Universal Pictures announced Fast & Furious 9 would be delayed a year due to the planned spin-offs. Gibson obviously didn't take the news well and blamed Johnson for the delay. "Congratulations to @TheRock ... for making the fast and the furious franchise about YOU," he wrote on Instagram. He then took a dig at The Rock's critically savaged and box office bomb, Baywatch. "Will this be another #BayWatch? Guys guys just relax I'm just a passionate film critic," Gibson added. Shots fired.
A day later, Universal announced the release date for Hobbs & Shaw. Gibson responded to the news by taking his beef to Instagram once again. "Diversity, love, multi ethnic worldwide multi generational, United Nations, One Race, Fast Family," he captioned the throwback photo of the cast sans Johnson. "Until Dewayne [sic] showed up I guess this whole time he had a problem cause he wasn't the ONLY ONE on the movie poster."
"They offered but YOU didn't have to agree with a solo #HobbsMovie," he continued, adding that Paul Walker and Vin Diesel were offered spin-offs — but turned them down.
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Dwayne Johnson posted the teaser trailer for Hobbs & Shaw on Instagram later that week claiming that Universal approached him about the spin-off "years ago." He explained his reason for agreeing to the film was to "create greater opportunities" for his fellow Fast & Furious franchise castmates as well as any other actor "who want to be a part of something new and cool." His parting shot came in the form of a hashtag: "#CandyA****NeedNotApply."
Gibson then ratcheted up the feud by posting a video of Johnson criticizing his 2015 R&B album, Black Rose. In the now-deleted video (via E! News), Johnson called Tyrese Gibson's sixth album a "big piece of black dog s***" and said he would was "never going to f****** forgive" Gibson for wasting his time. "Haters come in many forms," Gibson wrote in the caption. "In my Kanye voice #BlackRose is one of the greatest R&B Soul Albums of all time."
The feud died down for almost a year until Gibson hopped on Instagram (again) in Nov. 2017, and threatened to walk away from the franchise if The Rock continued to be a part of it. "I'm sorry to announce that if Dewayne [sic] is in Fast9 there will no more Roman Peirce [sic] – You mess with family and my daughters survival I mess with yours......... close your eyes dude you're a 'Clown,'" Gibson wrote, misspelling his own character's name.
On Aug. 2, 2019, Hobbs & Shaw hit theaters and roared to become the #1 movie at the box office in its first two weeks. Johnson took to Twitter to thank his fans — and take another shot at Gibson while he was at it. "Thank you everyone for makin' this an exciting first week of box office for our lil' spin-off @hobbsandshaw. #1 movie and $333M worldwide, ain't too shabby. And remember, the best way to shut the mouth of a [clown] is to flex with success and a smile," he tweeted. At the time of this writing, the film has earned $588 million worldwide.
However, in yet another since-deleted Instagram post (via People), Gibson called the global opening "NOT a win" and claimed that "breaking up the family clearly doesn't have the value" that Johnson thought it would have. "Again my respects cause he tried his best," he passive-aggressively added.
On Sep. 6, 2019, Deadline reported that Hobbs & Shaw surpassed $700 million at the box office, making it the "highest-grossing non-Disney/non-superhero movie of 2019." You can probably smell what The Rock was cooking when he read that article. Yes, another shot at Tyrese. The shot came in the form of an Instagram post where the action star posted a screenshot of the Deadline story, where the #nocandya**** hashtag made yet another cameo. "Assassins quietly play chess loud clowns play checkers," Johnson captioned the post. "Thank you audiences worldwide for this incredible support and massive win. Very cool and we're grateful for the love. #hardestworkersintheroom #hungryhumble #nocandya****"
We're not sure if The Rock and Gibson will appear together in Fast & Furious 9 or not. But if they do, we're buying all the popcorn.