Universal Pictures(LOS ANGELES) — It’s hard to remember that the Fast & Furious series started nearly 20 years ago as a movie about street racing culture in Los Angeles. It’s especially hard to remember that fact when you get to the part in the new trailer for Hobbs & Shaw — a spin-off from the franchise — where Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is reeling in an attack helicopter like a hooked tuna.
And strangely, that’s not even the craziest part.
The franchise has now entered the superhero genre as Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw become unlikely allies in a mission to stop a genetically-modified terrorist named Brixton, played by Idris Elba.
“I’m black Superman!” Brixton boasts, as he simultaneously fights Hobbs and Shaw as a Cold War-era missile silo crashes down around them.
Realizing they can’t beat Brixton when it comes to tech, Hobbs, Shaw, and Shaw’s sister, played by Vanessa Kirby, “go old school,” traveling to Hobbs’ Pacific Island home, which apparently has little access to technology.
There, Hobbs gathers an army of his islander family members, leading them in a “haka,” or war dance, before they go into battle with Brixton’s mercenary army.
Dame Helen Mirren reappears as Shaw’s incarcerated mum, and actress Eiza González also stars.
The Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, directed by stuntman-turned Deadpool 2 director David Leitch, opens August 2.
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