Tyrese Gibson Slams The Rock, Hobbs & Shaw

The feud between Tyrese Gibson and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson continues. 

When Johnson, who plays Luke Hobbs in the action-packed Fast & Furious film series, announced that he would be starring in his own spin-off movie entitled Hobbs & Shaw, Gibson, known for playing the fast-talking former convict Roman Pearce, began viewing his franchise co-star as something of an enemy. Johnson moved fast away from the core franchise, and that made Gibson furious. Tension between the two has been high for years now, but in the days following the August 2 launch of Hobbs & Shaw, things have reached a boiling-over point. 

Gibson recently took to Instagram to slam Johnson for his decision to film Hobbs & Shaw before the ninth Fast & Furious movie, poke fun at Hobbs & Shaw's $180 million worldwide opening weekend, and hint that Johnson and his co-star Jason Statham (who plays the Deckard Shaw to his Luke Hobbs) will experience continued backlash from others. Gibson also seemed to imply that the only reason why Johnson is a favorite in Hollywood is because he has been a part of "at least 15" franchises and is continually asked to star in sequels. 

"I have to show my respects for one thing.... He tried........ Folks called me a hater.... Attacked me for speaking out.....Breaking up the family clearly doesn't have the value that one would assume it does," Gibson wrote in a now-deleted post, which featured a photo of a news story titled "'Hobbs & Shaw' Has Lowest 'Fast & Furious' Box Office Opening Since 'Tokyo Drift'" (via Page Six). 

Gibson continued, "You know what maybe just maybe... The Rock and the crew will come dance with us again for #Fast10 we can all hug it out and get back to giving the true fans who have supported this franchise for 20 years WHAT they want........No hating I'm just pointing out the facts. #FastFamily has more value as the #FastFamily it's ok ... there won't be any tears on his pillow tonight. 180 million dollar global opening on Hobbs and Shaw is NOT a win ... When you do get attacked well ... That's that ... Again my respects cause he tried his best."

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This is the latest shot fired in the Gibson-versus-Johnson battle. Gibson has been incredibly and vocally unhappy with Johnson since news of the Hobbs & Shaw spin-off went public in 2017. 

To Gibson's credit, Hobbs & Shaw did complicate the production of Fast & Furious 9. Longtime screenwriter Chris Morgan left the project to work on Hobbs & Shaw, and despite Gibson's pleas to Johnson to prioritize Fast & Furious 9 over the spin-off flick, the movie was pushed back. Fast & Furious 9 was ultimately delayed nearly a full year, moving from its planned April 19, 2019 release date to April 10, 2020. The premiere date change was seemingly the straw that broke the camel's back — or, er, the nail in the road that popped the street racer's tire — and the event that sent Gibson over the edge. 

In another post on his Instagram page, uploaded in October 2017, Gibson wrote a scathing message openly blaming Johnson for delaying Fast & Furious 9. 

"Congratulations to The Rock and your brother-in-law aka 7 bucks producing partner [Hiram Garcia] for making the Fast and the Furious franchise about YOU. And like you, DJ, even if they call, I will not be deleting this post. Gn, folks. See you in 2020 April," wrote Gibson. "Fast family, right? Nah. It's about Team Dwayne."

The actor previously addressed Johnson on Instagram, "If you move forward with that Hobbs movie, you will have purposely ignored the heart-to-heart moment we had in my sprinter. 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. Fast family is just that, a family. We don't fly solo."

In November 2017, Gibson threatened to quit the Fast & Furious franchise if Johnson got to be in both Hobbs & Shaw and Fast 9. He wrote on Instagram, "I'm sorry to announce that if [Dwayne] is in Fast9 there will no more Roman [Pearce]." He went on to call Johnson a "clown" and a "candy a** b****," ultimately accusing him of using steroids to obtain his ultra-ripped physique and implying that Johnson's professional decisions have "messed" with his family. (We can only assume this is in reference to the Fast & Furious 9 delay, which meant that Pearce wouldn't be making money from the project when he thought he would be.) 

Gibson explained in a separate post that he was primarily mad at Johnson for agreeing to the spin-off film without considering how it might affect Gibson's own life, finances, and personal struggles, which at the time included paying for unidentified legal fees and apparently fighting for custody of his daughter.

"All I asked you to do 'privately' was NOT accept a role that would deeply effect us all," Gibson said. "You are simply NOT the people's champ..... you are a selfish champ..... I'm almost broke swimming in legal fees ... Make sure you kiss your 2 daughters when you get home I wish I could but I can't afford to fight for my baby anymore so they're likely going to take her away." 

He added that the "truth of selfish people in Hollywood needs to be mentioned," and noted that Johnson had yet to return his calls. 

Just a few days after sharing those posts to Instagram, Gibson again took to his social media platform of choice to state that he had smoothed things over with Johnson, and was excited to return for Fast & Furious 9 since veteran franchise director Justin Lin was confirmed to be at the helm. 

"Want you guys to know I️ had a real heart to heart with one of [Dwayne's] associates and this will be my last post about him," Gibson said. "Justin Lin is back in the driver['s] seat. That's exciting cause it['s] going to feel like the true #FastFamily all over again... When we see Justin, we see Paul [Walker]."

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Obviously, based on his most recent post, Gibson wasn't done talking about Johnson and may not have actually patched things up with the actor. Thankfully, it seems this recent shade-throwing fiasco could be the final battle in the war between Gibson and Johnson, as Johnson won't be involved with Fast & Furious 9. Whether or not Gibson can let bygones be bygones remains to be seen, but it looks like the era of Gibson and Johnson sharing the screen together in the Fast franchise might be coming to a screeching halt.