10 movies deep into the Fast & Furious franchise, Vin Diesel is finding it so hard to continue its “mythologies” that he now relates to J.R.R. Tolkien’s creation of the epic Lord of the Rings series.
During a red carpet interview with Variety, Diesel was asked how working on Fast & Furious has gotten more difficult over the past two decades. He responded, “You know what gets harder? The work offscreen. The thinking, the expanding — there’s a reason why Tolkien stopped writing after a while. It’s so hard to continue mythologies. Nobody thinks about it in that context, but it’s real.”
When the Variety reporter quipped that the Fast series is The Lord of the Rings of action movies, Diesel agreed. “From your mouth to God’s ears. It’s so true,” he said, before switching to a bad English accent. “I should’ve stopped after The Hobbit.”
Though Diesel is undoubtedly the face of Fast & Furious, he has never been credited as a screenwriter. He has, however, been a producer of the movies since 2009’s Fast & Furious, and his outsized presence caused enough friction with Dwayne Johnson that the former WWE superstar didn’t return for F9. Justin Lin also blamed Diesel’s “difficult” behavior for his decision to step away from Fast X.
Plus, continuing the thread of family doesn’t seem quite as difficult as the epic tale of Frodo and the hobbits as they journeyed across Middle-earth. After all, we’re just here to see the increasingly impossible stunts involving cars, tanks, planes, and makeshift spacecraft.
Fast X is out on May 19th. Revisit the latest trailer here.
#FastX star Vin Diesel relates to why J.R.R. Tolkien stopped writing “The Lord of the Rings”: “It’s so hard to continue mythologies.” https://t.co/dDZbcvtGB9 pic.twitter.com/iOqNOZclPU
— Variety (@Variety) February 10, 2023