That’s right, the C-Nation leader is making his way to the set of Fast and Furious 9, presumably to bring more muscle to the team since Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham will be away shooting Hobbs and Shaw. Ben Travis of Empire Online has written recently that Vin Diesel brought Cena in to bolster the already impressive cast that will be coming back for the movie, but there’s no clue just where he’s going to fit in as of yet. Think about what Cena’s done in the recent past though it’s going to be something that’s entirely physical and allows him to show off his acting ability as well as his size since he’s shown that he has what it takes to be dramatic and comedic as well as strong and athletic.
According to Tyler McCarthy of Fox News, Diesel made this announcement when he was seen at the Avenger: Endgame premier, and since then people have been going nuts trying to find out as much as they can in terms of what’s going to happen, where Cena’s going to fit in, and whether he’ll be an ally or an enemy. While none of that is really known yet what does seem to be reasonable to assume is that he’ll be an ally, largely since Cena’s been the good guy in the action films he’s done thus far. It also seems as though he wouldn’t really be believable as the bad guy since he’s the type of person that seems more like the hero type and less like the archetypal villain. Statham can play a villain, that much is obvious, and even Dwayne Johnson can possibly play a bad guy, but Cena, well, he just doesn’t seem to fit the mold.
Wil Jones from Joe seems to put a nice explanation on this matter since after interviewing Cena he’s made the revelation that who Cena is on TV isn’t just an act, he’s living it the way he portrays it, and that’s what people seem to like and dislike in equal measures at times. Cena is the kind of guy that is the real-life hero since he embraces the chance to change and he definitely seems more like the nice guy than the jock he might appear to be. This almost makes putting him in a Fast and Furious movie seem like trying to enjoy milk and cookies alongside a beer and a plate of nachos with extra hot sauce added in, but honestly he’s done enough in his career at this point to prove that he can adapt and evolve as he needs to in order to make the part work. Personally I didn’t think Blockers was going to be much in the way of comedy but it turned out to be hilarious and Cena was one big reason for that.
When it comes to being the nice guy he knows how to stow it away when the camera’s on since his role in Bumblebee required him to be kind of an uptight and less than fun individual that went by the rules and wasn’t really capable of bending them until there was no other choice. But then if you recall how much he’s evolved since The Marine to this point you get the feeling that he’s taken a lot of big steps towards becoming a real and honest to goodness actor that is worth every bit of his salary. Plus, there’s another reason why his inclusion into the franchise might be a good thing, it means that in the next Fast and Furious, if he comes back, that he and Dwayne Johnson could be on the same screen again, hopefully to produce the kind of results that will keep fans fully entertained since the two of these guys lit it up in the WWE when they competed against one another. Even the weeks leading up to their matches were spectacular since the dynamic between them is so great that the trash-talking was one of the more enjoyable moments between them.
Putting John Cena into the franchise makes sense considering that there’s always been a bit of muscle in every movie and whether it’s been Vin Diesel and no one else or it’s been someone that was brought in to round the cast out, it’s always been this way. The crew that operates in each film usually needs to be big enough and diverse enough that the members each have their own specialty. There’s no doubt that Cena is going to be the muscle in the upcoming movie, but whether he’s going to be just as tough and obstinate as Hobbs has yet to be determined since there’s no information on his character as of yet. Rest assured that he’ll likely have a huge issue with someone on the crew, or perhaps he’ll have history with one or two of them. That just seems like a given.
