Vin Diesel begs Dwayne Johnson to return for 'Fast & Furious 10'
Vin Diesel is asking Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to end his highly publicized feud and rejoin "Fast & Furious" for the end of the saga.
The 54-year-old actor, who plays Dominic Toretto in the films, extended an olive branch on Sunday by sharing an open letter on Instagram addressed to his former co-star.
"My little brother Dwayne... the time has come," he wrote alongside a photo of them facing each other. "The world awaits the end of Fast 10."
Diesel went on to say that his children still refer to Johnson as "Uncle Dwayne," despite their well-documented breakup. "There isn't a holiday that goes y that you and them don't send well wishes," he added.
Johnson, 49, made his debut as federal agent Luke Hobbs in "Fast Five" in 2011 and reprized his role in the franchise's sixth, seventh and eighth installments before landing his own spin-off, "Hobbs&Shaw".
The pair's feud flared up in 2016, during the final weeks of filming 2017's "The Fate Of The Furious." At the time, Johnson posted a photo on his verified Instagram account, which he has since deleted, criticizing to unidentified male co-stars.
"Some (male co-stars) carry themselves like assertive men and true professionals, while others don't," Johnson wrote at the time.
Diesel told Men's Health in June of this year that as a producer of the "Fast & Furious" franchise, "heavy-handed love" was at the root of his conflict with Johnson.
"He was a difficult character to embody, the Hobbs character," he said. "My focus at the time was a lot of heavy-handed love to help get that performance where it needed to be."
However, Johnson fired back in the Vanity Fair cover story, saying that he and Diesel were "philosophically two different people" who "approach the business of movie production in two very different ways".
While Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter in July that he wouldn't be coming back for more "Fast & Furious" movies, it seems Diesel is ready to put it all in the past to keep his promise to the late Paul Walker (whom he refers to as " Pablo") to give the saga a proper ending. Walker played Brian O'Conner in the franchise until his death in 2013.
"I swore that we would reach and manifest the best Fast in the final which is 10," he continued, in his message to Johnson. "I say this for love... but you must show up, don't leave the saga inactive, you have a very important role to play. Hobbs cannot be played by anyone else. I hope you rise to the occasion and fulfill your destiny" .
