David Leitch must marvel at how quickly his career has blossomed. The former stunt veteran was basically a complete unknown until co-directing the breakout hit John Wick, before quickly repeating the success with Charlize Theron and Atomic Blonde, and using that to land the gig at the helm of Deadpool 2. And he’s now in talks for something even bigger.
Leitch is reportedly in early talks with Universal to join the Fast & Furious family and direct the spinoff to the main series, set to star Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. He’s emerged as the frontrunner for the job.
This is the spinoff that earned some well-publicised drama when Fast & Furious 9 was pushed back a year so this spinoff could be released first. The plot will focus on Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Statham’s Deckard Shaw, who earned a bunch of fans after their rivalry-turned-bromance in The Fate Of The Furious.
Chris Morgan, who wrote that film and every Fast & Furious script since Tokyo Drift, has penned the screenplay for the spinoff too, but plot details are so far mostly under wraps, though it’s fair to expect plenty of crazy action set pieces.
With the Deadpool sequel expected to continue the conflation of ultra violence and dark comedy that the first had in abundance, and after also seeing his two previous action-heavy films, it makes sense that Universal would see Leitch as a perfect fit for a franchise that is as violent as it is goofy.
The currently untitled spinoff is set to be released July 26, 2019.
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