THE CROWN's Vanessa Kirby Set to Play Jason Statham's Sister in HOBBS AND SHAW
Dwayne Johnson has announced that Vanessa Kirby, who played Princess Margaret on Netflix’s The Crown, has joined the cast of the upcoming Fast and Furious spinoff film, Hobbs and Shaw. She will take on the role of the sister of Jason Statham's character Deckard Shaw.
It looks like the film will be pulling back the curtain on more of Shaw's family members. According to Variety, Shaw's sister is an MI-5 agent. We don't know how big of a role she'll play in the story, but I imagine it will be pretty substantial.
Welcome the very talented @VanessaKirby to our “HOBBS & SHAW” Fast & Furious spin-off. We chopped it up and we had some GREAT chemistry together. She’s a sharp one - this is gonna be fun! #Kirby #HobbsAndShaw
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) July 3, 2018
https://t.co/c8ciKipMGw
David Leitch (Deadpool 2) is directing the film, and he previously explained that he plans on scaling back a bit and make the spinoff more of a grounded film. He also reveals that it will kind of be an origin story:
"I think it’s going to be a little bit more grounded because it’s the beginning. It’s an origin story, in a sense. It’s not an origin story, but we’re starting a franchise. So we want it to be a little bit more grounded, a little bit more character-centric. We’re going to set up the stakes for these guys and their relationship, but we’re also going to have some great set pieces and some action that you’d expect from that type of franchise."
Fast and Furious franchise writer Chris Morgan wrote the script for the film, and while we don't know the story, Leitch explains that the film will steer away from the street racing and dive into the world of spies and government agents:
"We’re diving into their world. I think we want to have our own take on the Fast universe. It will definitely have elements of the original DNA, but it is more drifting into Shaw’s spy word and Dwayne’s agent world and, obviously, we want to build on their relationship, their conflict, their banter. That chemistry that they have between them, that’s sort of what’s driving the movie."
I enjoy the characters of Hobbs and Shaw, and I expected this movie to focus on their world, which makes sense to bring in the sister of Shaw. It will be interesting to see what other characters they introduce.