The FAST & FURIOUS franchise was already moving on up before the Rock’s involvement. Yes, it had its relatively low-key beginnings, as well as its jump off the deep end with THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT, but with the fourth film in the entry, FAST & FURIOUS, the series took a welcome turn into the more ridiculous side of things, where it full-on embraced its departure from its origins.

However, it wasn’t until FAST FIVE that the series took off to even greater heights, and perhaps the introduction of The Rock’s character, Hobbs, was partially responsible for that. Nowadays, Dwayne Johnson is consider to be franchise adrenaline, and should a film series include him, there’s a good chance it’ll have at least some sort of success. This was definitely the case with FAST FIVE, which was the first film in the series to break half a billion at the worldwide box office, practically doubling the take from FAST & FURIOUS, which was the most successful entry in the franchise up to that point.

Of course, with FURIOUS 8 in production, we knew the re-introduction of Hobbs was inevitable, and like with many things these days, Johnson took to Instagram to commemorate the occasion.

Check out the post below!

In addition to the killer photo, Johnson wrote the following in the caption:

“When you strip a man of all he has. All that’s important to him. You force him to return to his roots.. and sometimes that’s a very dangerous and twisted place.

If I was going to return for another FAST & FURIOUS I wanted to come in and disrupt the franchise in a cool way that got fans fired up and their blood pumping to see a new version of Hobbs and his “Daddy’s gotta go to work” mentality and set the table in a cool way for where the character goes in the future.

Maybe it’s a spinoff movie. Maybe it’s more #FF movies. Or hell maybe Hobbs just gets on his motorcycle and rides off into the sunset never to be seen again. 
Either way, I’ve had a solid first week of shooting, good to be back with the ohana, good to work again w/ my bud and director F. Gary Gray and our home studio of UNIVERSAL, as always have been the best partners to me and my #SevenBucksProds team. Most importantly… you guys around the world will really dig this new version of the role, ’cause as we always say, disrupters dent the universe. 

#Hobbs #TwistedRoots #1Disrupter #1Savage #F8″

While FURIOUS 7 had Hobbs up in the hospital for most of its runtime, with the upcoming film, it looks like he may be playing a more central role. What’s more, the film may very well see the character at his lowest. Let’s just hope Johnson isn’t talking about the death of Hobbs’ daughter, but if not, what will send Hobbs to that lowest, most stripped down, point? We’ll have to wait and see.

What do you think of the photo, but more importantly, what do you think of Johnson’s comments? Let us know your thoughts down below!

FURIOUS 8 hits theaters on April 14, 2017.

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SOURCE: Dwayne Johnson, Box Office Mojo