The Fast & Furious franchise continues to churn out more films that end up doing very well at the box office, the latest also seems to be heading that way. Jason Statham and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson have cemented themselves at the core of the action-packed series with David Leitch’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.
The movie also includes a star studded cast with the likes of Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, and Helen Mirren. However not so many people know that there is a crossover with one of Statham’s most popular movies. Don’t worry, now you do.
The ongoing success of the Fast movies means that Universal are branching out from their petrolhead main series and focussing their efforts on a series of spin-offs. Although Fast & Furious 10 will reportedly be the last movie with the whole gang, Hobbs & Shaw is setting the scene for an expanded Fast-Verse.
While Hobbs & Shaw is the usual fodder of Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Statham’s Deckard Shaw swinging their d*cks in a display of masculinity, fans have spotted a brilliant crossover with 2003’s The Italian Job.
One scene in Hobbs & Shaw sees the duo walking through Shaw’s garage and admiring his impressive array of cars. Hobbs stops by an iconic Mini Cooper and mocks the size of it, before Shaw mentions how it came in handy during a trip to Italy. Not the most subtle of references… Having said that these two are anything but subtle.
Heading back to 2003, F. Gary Gray’s movie stared Statham, Mark Wahlberg, Seth Green, Edward Norton, and Charlize Theron. A loose remake of the Michael Caine classic featuring the classic little Mini Cooper’s.
Statham played ladies man, Handsome Rob, and not to take away from the star’s acting ability, but he does play a lot of similar roles. It turns out this led to Hobbs & Shaw‘s Italian Job nod.
Speaking to Cheatsheet, Leitch even discussed the intentional Easter egg. Telling the site: “I always hoped that that would get some traction and we could talk about it on online forums.
“Honestly, I’ll leave that open to everyone’s interpretation in what sort of mythology they want to put to it. For us, it was a sort of fun meta nod to the fact that Jason does a lot of car movies.”
A Statham-Verse of movies, could our wildest dreams have come true? It’s certainly an interesting thought that Shaw and Handsome Rob are also the same guy in Crank, The Transporter, and Death Race. If so, Deckard Shaw has led an even more interesting life than we first thought.
I guess we’ll find out in the inevitable Hobbs & Shaw sequel or when Deckard gets behind the wheel in his next Fast & Furious outing.
[Featured Image: Universal]