‘Fast 8’ star Dwayne Johnson Teases First Look at Agent Hobbs, Possible Standalone Film in Franchise

‘Fast 8’ actor Dwayne Johnson recently shared a new photograph on social media teasing the first look at his character Agent Hobbs. It was revealed that Hobbs will have a bigger role on the eighth installment and that a possible standalone film for the character may be in the works.

According to AV Club, Johnson took to Instagram to post an exclusive first look at his character Luke Hobbs. He strongly suggested a possible spin-off series but did not officially confirm such but he did look very much different from the usual Hobbs fans have come to know. Johnson showed off a new beard and shaved head and donned jeans and a leather vest.

His social media post began with, “EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK: #HOBBS #F8 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.” He then promised to disrupt the highly popular ‘Fast and the Furious’ franchise through a brand new Hobbs.

He then teased, “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.” Johnson then expressed his enthusiasm for the upcoming film after a successful week of filming with his director and friend F. Gary Gray.

Speculations of a Hobbs-centric spinoff film emerged upon Johnson’s tease with some suggesting that his character could definitely carry a standalone film. According to Comicbook.com, ‘Fast 8’ producer Hiram Garcia revealed that they were focused on polishing up Johnson’s Hobbs with character co-creator Chris Morgan. Garcia also revealed that Hobbs will have a bigger role to play in the upcoming eighth installment.

When asked about a possible standalone film for the character, he said, "A hundred percent… I think there's always been conversations for that. The scheduling of it all is a challenge but there are always talks about a potential spinoff movie and what we can do with it.”

He added, “He's a beloved enough character that they'd love to see what a ride with him would be like in his world. We have tons of history that we've crafted for this guy that we continue to sprinkle in throughout the movies. You'll see a little bit more in this movie but ultimately we want to take that ride and spin him off and have some fun with it."

‘Fast 8’ is an upcoming action film directed by F. Gary Gray of ‘Straight Outta Compton’ fame. It is produced by Vin Diesel, Michael Fottrell, and Neal H. Moritz with Chris Morgan executive producing. It is scheduled to be released on April 14, 2017.

It predecessor, ‘Furious 7’, grossed a whopping $1.51 billion in the worldwide box office against a $190 million production budget, making it the highest-grossing film in the history of the action franchise. It earned $67 million during its premiere on April 3, 2015.