Dwayne Johnson says Vin Diesel’s public plea for him to join Fast & Furious 10 was ‘manipulation’

With the conclusion of the Fast & Furious franchise on the horizon, it looked like Vin Diesel had hoped to bury the hatchet with former co-star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson after the two had a falling out several years ago.

Diesel even posted a plea on social media in November for Johnson to return to the franchise for the finale.

However, Johnson has made it very clear that it’s not something he’s considering. In fact, he went further and called out Diesel’s “manipulation”.

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday (Dec 29), the 49-year-old Johnson said that he had connected with Diesel in June and told him that there was “no chance” of him reprising his role as Luke Hobbs in Fast & Furious 10. 

The Hollywood star and former wrestler then called Diesel’s social media post an "example of his manipulation” and said that he didn’t like the way Diesel “brought up his children in the post, as well as Paul Walker's death”.

“Leave them out of it,” Johnson said. 

“My goal all along was to end my amazing journey with this incredible Fast & Furious franchise with gratitude and grace. It's unfortunate that this public dialogue has muddied the waters,” he told CNN. 

Johnson added that he would “always be supportive of the cast and always root for the franchise to be successful”. 

Diesel referred to Johnson as “my little brother Dwayne” in his public post, and said that his children called Johnson “Uncle Dwayne”. He also called on Johnson to “rise to the occasion” and fulfil his destiny to play Hobbs in the franchise finale.

The duo’s infamous feud harks back to 2016, when Johnson posted on Instagram that "some (male co-stars) conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don't”. In response, Diesel implied that his hard stance was a form of “tough love” used to improve Johnson’s performance on set.