Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for Fast X.

Dwayne Johnson did not want to come back to the Fast & Furious franchise. This guy made it abundantly clear in any press interviews during the last few years that his time starring in these movies was over. The entire existence of the spinoff film Hobbs & Shaw was basically a way to keep Johnson around in this fictional universe without giving him a need to work with Vin Diesel, the actor Johnson reportedly has beef with. This meant that, as the Fast & Furious franchise drew to its conclusion, it looked like key character Luke Hobbs wouldn’t be around for all the high-speed mayhem, even as the other titular lead of Hobbs & Shaw (Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw) was prominently featured in the marketing for Fast X.
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However, those who stuck around until the middle of the credits on that tenth Fast & Furious installment know that Johnson has finally come back into the fold of this main franchise. His brief cameo in this scene seems to indicate that he’ll have a much bigger role to play in the ultimate final to the Fast & Furious saga and that Johnson’s attitude towards these movies has changed dramatically. With just a few seconds of screen time, Johnson has totally overhauled his relationship with the Fast & Furious franchise once more.

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How Did Johnson Come Back to the Fast & Furious Saga?

Image via Universal Pictures

The Fast X scene in question featuring the return of Johnson arrives in the middle of the feature’s credits, with Hobbs fully decked out head-to-toe in a camouflage outfit that conceals his identity from the viewer. He enters a room filled with images and videos evoking a “vision board” belonging to Fast X antagonist Dante (Jason Momoa) that Dominic Toretto (Diesel) encountered earlier in the film. Dante’s voice then breaks in on a cell phone left behind in the room. On this call, Dante reveals to Hobbs that, while Toretto instigated the death of his father, Hobbs was the one who actually shot him. This means Dante has extra incentive for violent revenge against this one-time foe of Toretto and his family.

As Dante finishes his vengeful speech, Hobbs removes his mask, revealing his identity to the viewer, and promises that Dante won’t need to look far for him because “I’m not a hard man to find.” He then crushes the cell phone in his hand, a vivid reminder to viewers everywhere that Johnson is back in this franchise once again and brought his powerful muscles with him.

This scene is interesting primarily because Hobbs is totally divorced from every other character in the film. (He enters the scene with a squad of soldiers, though it’s unclear who they are or who they’re all working for.) Partially, this had to be done to make it easier to film this scene in the first place, since it meant that shooting could revolve around just Johnson’s schedule. However, it could also be a sign that Johnson still isn’t comfortable working with Diesel. He may be back in the Fast & Furious universe proper (and not just in side-films like Hobbs & Shaw), but we can’t say for sure that Johnson’s old feuds have suddenly vanished.

What is the Larger Significance of Johnson’s Return?

Image via Universal Pictures

The implications of this Fast X credits scene for the final Fast & Furious installments aren’t too subtle. Johnson’s Hobbs will inevitably manage to show up for the last curtain call for this expansive saga, with deep personal ties to big baddie Dante to boot. The cast for Fast X was already incredibly overwhelming, but the return of Hobbs makes it clear that at least one more person will be joining the party for either the last one or two entries in this series. The isolated approach to Hobbs makes it possible that the character will be kept far away from Toretto in whatever storyline is conjured up for Fast & Furious 11, which should help mitigate some tension.

The implications for what this return means for Johnson’s career, though, are a bit more complex and trickier. At the risk of inspiring a bizarre defensive tweet from the man himself, Dwayne Johnson, the guy known as franchise Viagra, is in a bit of a slump right now. Nobody will say he’s box office poison or anything that absurd, but his recent creative endeavors have not been consistently successful. Black Adam infamously underperformed and failed to deliver on promises of upending the DC Extended Universe. There’s been no movement on any sequels to recent star vehicles like Red Notice or Jungle Cruise. His NBC sitcom Young Rock looks poised for cancellation after three seasons.

For the last two years, Johnson’s larger-than-life movie star persona hasn’t yielded much in the way of massive hits. If anything, he’s reaffirmed his limitations as a box-office draw, as seen by Black Adam making less than Uncharted or Eternals worldwide. Unsurprisingly, some of Johnson’s recent career moves seem like attempts to get back into the good graces of moviegoers again by channeling some of his vintage roles. The announcement of a live-action Moana remake especially feels like Johnson trying to build a time machine and go back to 2016 when he was on fire as a movie star. While it’s doubtful a return to a big franchise like Fast & Furious would be predicated on just one element, it’s equally unlikely that Johnson’s recent career misfires didn’t suddenly make the idea of playing Luke Hobbs again extra enticing.

Dwayne Johnson’s Back … and It’s Unlikely He’s Going Anywhere Again

Image via Universal Pictures

Details on Fast & Furious 11 are incredibly scant right now beyond the fact that Fast X director Louis Leterrier is helming the movie and that it’s aiming for a 2025 theatrical release. The Fast X mid-credits scene with Hobbs, though, does strongly suggest that this previous staple of the saga will be around in a noticeable capacity. Perhaps this character will even save our heroes from one of the many cliffhanger endings of Fast X. Now that Hobbs is back, there are a lot of different places the narrative of Fast & Furious 11 can go.

The heavy reliance on previously established mythos, imagery, and lore in Fast X does make the impending further return of familiar faces like Luke Hobbs in Fast & Furious 11 a bit less exciting than it would be under normal circumstances. After all, when you’ve been eating nothing but ice cream for a few days, a surprise trip to Baskin-Robbins is not going to sound as appetizing as it normally would. But at least his return ensures that a super-important character across four mainline Fast & Furious installments (and one spinoff) will be back for the franchise’s grand finale. Who knows, maybe shooting Fast & Furious 11 will even lead to Johnson and Diesel permanently burying the hatchet? After all, with this franchise, it’s pretty clear that anything is possible.

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