The Rock Says Idris Elba Plays Fast & Furious’ ‘Baddest Villain’ in Hobbs & Shaw

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson spoke with EW and discussed Idris Elba’s antagonist in the upcoming Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw. Johnson told the site that their goal was to make Elba’s character one of the most memorable villains of the franchise.

Discussing the character, Johnson said, “If you have Hobbs and Shaw, two beloved characters within the Fast & Furious world, how do we create a villain who is formidable, viable, better, stronger, and more diabolical? How do we create that? I feel like we created that on the page, but then who is the actor who can actually bring that weight? And I’ve known Idris for some time now, and we felt like he was the perfect guy to come in and be our main villain. Our goal with Idris to make him the baddest villain the franchise has ever seen. Coming in, he is undefeated. And for a guy who is undefeated, three men enter and either one man leaves or two leave. And I say that respectfully because there have been so many bad guys who we’ve had over the years. But Idris is the perfect guy. Obviously, he’s a phenomenal actor, really brings a great weight and quality to the role — and a viability. He’s a big man and he’s a legitimate badass and a legitimate martial artist. I’ll tell you this, the past 10 days have been the finale; we’ve been shooting the big main event between us and Brixton. We’ve been fighting and it’s been pretty badass and painful, but great.”

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is set to open on August 2nd.