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Vin Diesel On Casting John Cena In F9, Believing Paul Walker ‘Sent’ Cena

April 14, 2021 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
F9 John Cena Vin Diesel

Dom Toretto is getting a brother in F9 to be played by John Cena, and Vin Diesel described the surreal way that Cena got the role in a new interview. Diesel spoke with Extra TV following the release of the new trailer today for the film and discussed casting Cena as Jakob in the movie. You can check out some highlights below and the full video:

On the initial process of casting the role: “I met with John. When I was — we had starting talking about the brother role way early on. When it came time to cast, that became a riddle that was so hard to answer. Every actor was on the table, every actor was thought about. Because — because I’m multi-cultural, every single actor could be my brother. Everybody. You are my brother [laughs]. Not ‘could be,’ you are my brother. So to carefully address the overall mythology, because you’ll probably, there will be answers in Fast 10 that will even explain or mystify you more.”

On casting Cena as Jakob: “ This — the moment, it happened in two seconds. The idea of John Cena came up. I had a dojo, a shrine, a ‘Dom Shrine,’ where I would go and get into character. Get into that Dom state of mind, and it had all the Fast memorabilia, it had weights and it was a training center for combat to get ready for the movie. He came in one day to meet me. And I got to tell you — and it sounded crazy at the time, and it probably still sounds crazy. I had felt, because I like to be in tune. I had felt that Pablo, Paul Walker, had sent him into the shrine. And I didn’t question it at all. I said, ‘That’s the brother.’”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Extra TV with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.