Vin Diesel’s on-set behaviour reportedly led to the director’s departure from Fast & Furious 10.
According to a new allegation, Vin Diesel is to blame for Justin Lin’s departure from the Fast & Furious 10 director chair just a week after starting.
According to a new allegation, Vin Diesel is to blame for Justin Lin’s departure from the Fast & Furious 10 director chair just a week after starting. Lin has been a member of the long-running action franchise for nearly 15 years, rising to prominence with the cult classic The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and directing the three sequels to the 2006 pseudo spinoff. Lin is most known for launching the Fast and Furious trilogy into its globetrotting and espionage phase with the critically praised Fast Five, which is credited with revitalising the brand’s formula.
Lin returned to the fold with F9: The Fast Saga, where he not only directed but also co-wrote the script with Daniel Casey, taking over as the series’ principal writer from franchise vet Chris Morgan. Despite the fact that the film failed to maintain the series’ positive review streak, it was a major box office success, grossing over $726 million worldwide and earning Universal Pictures a two-film deal to wrap up the mainline films, with Lin expected to return to co-write and direct both instalments. However, Lin abruptly quit Fast & Furious 10, simply titled Fast X, just a week into production, with no explanation, however it now appears the real reason may have surfaced.
Lin’s Fast & Furious 10 director exit is being blamed on Vin Diesel, according to the New York Daily Rumors. Lin’s Fast & Furious 10 director exit comes on the heels of news that the filmmaker had split relations with the project. According to an unnamed insider, the franchise vet has become a problem in recent chapters of the action series, and he is shocked that Lin is foregoing a big payment. Here’s what the anonymous source had to say:
Diesel’s on-set behaviour with the Fast and Furious trilogy has been a source of controversy for nearly six years, ever since Dwayne Johnson used Instagram to brand out some of his male stars as “candy a—es” and criticise them for bad behaviour, with many assuming it was Diesel he was referring to. Johnson and Diesel have spoken out about their ongoing animosity in the years since, alternating between being diplomatic in discussing each other and being more critical of each other. This was most recently demonstrated when Diesel took to social media to pleading with Johnson to return for one of the final Fast & Furious films, only for Johnson to reject his pleas and cite it as an example of Diesel’s “manipulation,” citing both his children and Paul Walker’s death as reasons for Johnson to return.
Lin’s departure from Fast 10 came as a surprise, given his lengthy association with the franchise and the film’s rapid growth, with Jason Momoa, Daniela Melchior of The Suicide Squad, and Brie Larson recently joining the star-studded cast and filming set to begin on April 20. The film’s budget has reportedly ballooned due to the ongoing production delay, with Universal reportedly spending $1 million per day looking for a new director, with reports that the studio considered previous helmers F. Gary Gary, David Leitch, and James Wan, but their various scheduling commitments kept them off the list. With the release of Fast & Furious 10 planned for May 19, 2023, only time will tell who the studio chooses to succeed Lin as director.
