Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been a bonafide movie star for many years now, and as a man who’s done more than his share to beef up the action and adventure genres, there are several of his films that could easily get a sequel. One such movie is the 2019 hit Hobbs & Shaw, which saw Johnson and Jason Statham spin off their Fast & Furious characters for their own solo adventure. Fans wanted more of their buddy-cop chemistry pretty much from the moment the credits finished at the end of the movie, and now we know why there’s been no real movement on Hobbs & Shaw 2 just yet, and Johnson’s bold plans for the movie.
While some Fast & Furious fans are, undoubtedly, hoping that Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw will eventually board the Fast 10 train, there may be even more who’d simply like to be able to watch the former DSS agent and the mercenary tear up the screen in another wild, funny, fast-paced film of their own. Dwayne Johnson was recently interviewed on The Jess Cagle Show, and when asked why Hobbs & Shaw 2, as well as other movies of his that could get sequels, haven’t yet, he said:
So I’m at a point in my career now, I think you guys will appreciate, this is, we’ve internally for us at Seven Bucks, if a project comes my way, it must have what we call now, the Moses Effect. And the Moses Effect, meaning it must have the ability to push all the other projects to the side. And it has to be like, like that’s how good it is. So for example, Red Notice had the Moses Effect. Black Adam had the Moses Effect, Jungle Cruise had the Moses Effect.
I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but Johnson is a very busy man. In just the past dozen or so years, he’s starred in so many movies and TV shows that, were I to list them all, you’d probably get tired of reading it less than half-way through. On top of that, there are an astounding number of upcoming Dwayne Johnson movies, and the man simply can’t do all of them at once.
So, Johnson and the team at his production company had to figure out a way to prioritize his projects, and the Moses Effect was born. Even though they’ve given it a fancy title, it makes total sense that any actor / producer / etc. would put the movies and shows they want to do in order from most to least creatively stimulating and / or exciting, and it just so happens that Hobbs & Shaw 2 landed below movies like the aforementioned Jungle Cruise, Red Notice, and Black Adam for Johnson.
Luckily, those worried that this means we might never get to see Johnson step back into the super-tight, muscle-bearing t-shirts of Mr. Hobbs need not fret. Johnson revealed that he’s already had a very cool idea for Hobbs & Shaw 2 that everyone loved, and noted:
So, when it comes to Hobbs and Shaw, which we loved and loved making that movie, there’s an idea that I had that I called [Universal Pictures Chairwoman] Donna Langley, called our writer, Chris Morgan, our producer Hiram Garcia. And I said, ‘I have this idea and this direction for Hobbs.’ And I pitched it and it would be, without giving it away, they all loved it. But it would be the antithesis of what Fast and Furious movies generally are in that they continue to go on and go on and go on. In this case I wanted to, and I still want to do, the quintessential Hobbs movie. That again, without giving it away, that you watch a man walk off into the sunset.
Ooooh. Now, hopefully, this “walk off into the sunset” won’t see Hobbs face a Logan-type of situation, where the movie’s about him struggling to survive and…you know, not quite making it, but I suppose we’ll just have to wait and watch when this intriguing idea finally gets the chance to play out on the big screen.
Hobbs & Shaw 2 is, clearly, a long way off yet, but Dwayne Johnson will be seen soon in Red Notice, which premieres at select theaters on November 5, and hits Netflix on November 12. For more of what to watch soon, check out our guides for 2021 movies and 2022 movies!