Louis Leterrier On How Big Fast X Cameo Came About (SPOILERS)

Warning: Spoilers follow for Fast X.

Fast X featured a major cameo in the mid-credits scene, and director Louis Leterrier revealed how it came about. The mid-credits scene of the penultimate Fast & Furious film featured new Big Bad Dante (Jason Mamoa) inform a man over the phone that he was the next target. The man proved to be none other than Luke Hobbs, marking Dwayne Johnson’s return to the main franchise for the first time since Fate of the Furious. The appearance was surprising, considering Johnson had a famous public feud with Diesel and has since said he wasn’t interested in returning.

Leterrier spoke with THR for a new interview and talked about how the cameo happened, as well as bringing back Gal Gadot as Gisele Yashar who was previously thought dead after the events of Fast & Furious 6. You can check out some highlights below:

On who brokered the “peace treaty” between Johnson and Diesel: “The peace treaty. [laughs] I kind of did. We all did. Ultimately, the movie did. I didn’t know Dwayne, personally, but we reached out to Dwayne and Dwayne’s team. We sort of looked at each other from across the room and winked a few months back, saying, ‘We should work together.’ And then I had this idea and I presented it to the producers and the studio. And then we reached out to Dwayne and his team and said, ‘Just come and watch the movie. You have to love the movie first.’

“So he came to see the movie and really loved it, and then we started talking. It was very smooth, and frankly, as a fan, I could not conceive continuing the franchise without either Dwayne or Gal Gadot. This franchise was built by actors and characters. The set pieces are wonderful. They keep you entertained and keep you shoving popcorn in your mouth, but the characters make this franchise what it is.”

On if he was on set with Gadot: “I was on the set with her. I was lucky enough to see Gal Gadot and give her a big hug and a thank you at the end of the shoot. That was a highlight for me. I was lucky enough to direct one commercial with her, and I saw the power of Gal Gadot for 30 seconds. So, now that I get to not only work with her but also bring back Gisele into the franchise, I’m the happiest fan in the world.”

On Jason Momoa’s ‘nail polish’ scene with the two dead henchmen: “No, it was never controversial, but it is a very polarizing scene. It was not scripted. We wanted more of Jason Momoa’s Dante, so we improvised a little bit more. We wanted to see Dante when he is not peacocking. We wanted to see Dante behind closed doors and realize that he is really twisted. It’s not just an act. So we shot that scene, but we thought it would be a DVD extra at best or in the director’s cut version later down the road. So we started testing the movie without it, and then we started testing the movie with that scene. And the audience went crazy for it. Some were angry and some loved it. It was all so different. And frankly, it was the studio’s Donna Langley who watched the scene and said, ‘I love it. I love the insanity of that scene.’ And so she gave us the OK.”