“Hey, Dwayne!” : Vin Diesel panicked Fast & Furious fans at the Golden Globes

The actor came to present a new prize: that of the greatest cinematic success at the box office.

Vin Diesel took to the stage at the Beverly Hilton last night, during the ceremony Golden Globes 2025 to present the trophy for best box office. An award won by Wickedby Jon M. Chu, which actually did well this winter, particularly in the United States: of its 680 million dollars in worldwide revenue, 450 million were recorded domestically.

But it is even before presenting the candidates in the running for this prize that the flagship actor of the sagas Riddick And Fast and Furious caused a sensation. Sitting in front of the microphone, he greeted one of his playing partners from this latest franchise, Dwayne Johnsonpresent in the room. Who responded with a polite smile. Or even embarrassed? Internet users have analyzed this short extract at length since its broadcast. Why this “Hey, Dwayne!”did it make fans of the saga react so much? You have to go back almost ten years to understand everything.

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If Vin Diesel wears Fast and Furious since 2001, as Dom Toretto, the leader of a “family” of auto racing enthusiasts, The Rock arrived a decade later in Fast Five in the shoes of Luke Hobbs, initially hired to hunt down Dom. Through the story's crazy twists and turns, his character ended up siding with the team.

From the 5th to the 8th opus, Dom and Luke are sometimes in competition – the famous photo illustrating this article in particular caused a lot of ink to flow, with Vin slightly taller than The Rock, while the latter has a more imposing build than him in life…- but behind the scenes, everything seemed calm between the two actors. However, in 2016, a feud broke out between them and this heavily impacted the saga, which saw the ex-security agent move away from your allies for a spin-off, Hobbs and Shaw (2019), not returning in episode 9, before finally saying hello to the public in the latest opus, Fast and Furious 10.

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Between 2011 and 2016, Dwayne saw his popularity skyrocket in Hollywood, alongside the ever more spectacular success of the films in the saga. Except that behind the scenes, the tension between him and Diesel was also rising. Their feud began in earnest with a post Instagram by Johnson singing the praises of the women in the franchise but calling some of her male teammates “sissies” and “fake ass“:

“There is no other franchise that makes my blood boil more than this one, Johnson shared in the now-deleted post.. My female partners are always amazing and I love them. My male partners, however, are a different story. Some behave like real men, professionals, while others don't. These idiots are too cowardly to do anything anyway. Sissies. When you watch this movie next April (Fast and Furious 8editor’s note)if you have the impression that I am not acting in certain scenes and that my blood is truly boiling, well you would be right.

Quickly, Rolling Stone confirmed that he was actually talking about Vin Diesel. For some time, fans wondered if it was all bogus, organized to make noise. There was even talk ofa wrestling match between the two mountains of muscles… But following this murderous post, The Rock has indeed given up Fast and Furious 9. From then on, the two men continued to send barbs to each other through interviews, or via their corporate names.

In the summer of 2021, the original actor of the franchise, who is also one of the historical producers, justified in Men's Health that he asked “a lot” to its actors:

“Hobbs was a difficult character to play. My approach at the time was tough love, to help get that performance where it needed to be. As a producer, I said: 'OK, we're going to take Dwayne Johnson, who is associated with the wrestling world, and we're going to force that cinematic world, the viewers, to view his character as someone they don't know.' (…) Hobbs hits you like a ton of bricks. It’s something I’m proud of, this aesthetic. It took a lot of work. We had to make it happen and sometimes, at that moment, I could act in real love. Not in the type of (Frederico) Fellini either, but I did what I had to do, as I do on all the productions I work on.”.

To which Dwayne responded with a new mockery of THRensuring that he would no longer return to the franchise:

“I laughed and I laughed a lot. I think everyone made fun of his comment… And I'll leave it at that. I wish them good luck for the future. I wish them good luck on Fast 9. And I wish them good luck Fast 10 And Fast 11 and the rest of the films Fast & Furious and that they will do what will be done without me.”

In October of the same year, The Rock, however, put water in his wine, during an interview with Vanity Fair :

“My initial message caused a storm. Yet, interestingly, every member of the production team came up to me to thank me, quietly, for speaking out. But, yeah, it wasn't a glorious day for me. I shouldn't have shared this. Because ultimately it goes against my DNA. I don't do things like that. I handle this bullshit away from the public. They don't need to know. So, no, it wasn't glorious. (…) There was a meeting…I wouldn't call it a peaceful meeting. I would call it a clarity meeting! He and I had a good chat in my trailer. And it was from this discussion that it really became clear that we are truly on two ends of the spectrum. We left it there. (…) O“We are philosophically two different people, and we approach the world of cinema in two very different ways.”

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In the summer of 2023, Louis Leterrier brought Johnson back toa cameo in Fast. The opportunity for the star to bury the hatchet once and for all in a Twitter post:

“Last summer, Vin and I put all the past behind us. We will now lead the franchise with brotherhood and determination – and will always care for it, the characters and the fans we love. Despite our differences, Vin and I are like brothers for years… We lead by thinking about the future, about these plans which are much bigger than us…”

Since then, we have known that they will be reunited in the 11th opus of the franchise, it was Vin himself who confirmed its release date, and the introduction of The Rock to the cast, on Instagram at the time of Thanksgiving 2024:

“On the one hand I have Universal telling me that we need FastX2 in March 2026! On the other hand I have Comcast who says we need two films for the Finale! And then I have a Fast Five writer send me this image and tell me we need DOM and HOBBS to resolve their differences.

I just want to get back to real car racing, with stunts without special effects… and a reunion of this beautiful brotherhood. Happy Thanksgiving…“

“Hey, Dwayne…” message received?