John Cena shares take on Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel’s Fast and Furious ‘alpha feud’
Stars of long-running action franchise had a public falling out
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John Cena has shared his opinion on the reported animosity between his Fast & Furious co-stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Vin Diesel.
Cena made his first appearance in the popular car racing film franchise in 2021’s F9 (otherwise known as Fast & Furious 9), playing Jakob Toretto, the estranged middle brother of Dominic (Diesel) and Mia (Jordana Brewster).
During a recent appearance on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Cena, 46, opened up about the public falling out between his Fast co-stars, and gave his take on the reasons for their disagreement.
“There’s certainly rumours about that. I can’t deny that. You have two very alpha, driven people,” Cena said. “You get two. There can only be one.”
In 2016, during the filming of the eighth Fast film, 2017’s The Fate of the Furious, Johnson shared an Instagram post aimed at an unnamed male co-star who was later revealed to be the series mainstay, Diesel.
“Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don’t. The ones that don’t are too chicken s*** to do anything about it anyway. Candy a**es,” Johnson wrote at the time.
Johnson, who has played Hobbs in five of the movies as well as the 2019 spin-off, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, did not return to the franchise for F9.
The former WWE star later expressed his regret for the post and declared in 2023 that he’d be returning to the Fast universe, explaining that he and Diesel had decided to heal their rift.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Cena explained how his entry into the world of the action films was similar to his experiences as a WWE wrestler.
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“Man, you gotta remember I got dropped into a locker room where [we have] generational vets,” Cena said.
“‘What’d your dad do?’ ‘Wrestle.’ ‘What’d your granddad do?’ ‘Wrestle.’ I’ve been in that environment – know the room and just kind of adapt to what’s going on.”
Cena went on to express the respect he had for the Fast process. “I’m being invited into someone’s home, into someone’s family,” he said.
“And regardless of how they look physically in comparison to another human being, this is one IP that has had nine installments and it’s an action movie – that’s rarefied air. At the very least, there has to be respect for that.”
In February, Diesel announced that the 11th film, known as Fast Xi, will be the final instalment and will mark a “grand finale” for the series.
Fast Xi is currently slated for release on 4 April 2025.
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