When Vin Diesel took the stage at the Beverly Hilton during the 2025 Golden Globes to present the best cinematic and box office achievement award (which went to Wicked), he shared a brief, awkward and intentional moment with Dwane “The Rock” Johnson, his former Fast & Furious franchise co-star.
Diesel, who has been the male protagonist of the Fast & Furious franchise for over 20 years, hadn’t even gotten to the nominees before he locked eyes with Johnson, who was seated at a table near the stage. He then simply said: “Hey, Dwayne,” with a wave and smile. At that point, the camera cut to Johnson, who awkwardly grinned back at Diesel. To understand why that marked the most tense moment of the award ceremony, one must understand the lore of Fast & Furious and the simmering tension between the two action stars borne out of their once-and-again shared franchise.
Johnson jumped aboard the F&F films for the fifth installment as Luke Hobbs in 2011’s Fast Five and reprised the role over the next three installments. During this time, his stock in Hollywood rose, and by 2016 so did the tension between him and Diesel. Their years-long feud began in earnest in 2016 with a now-deleted Instagram post from Johnson singing the praises of the women of the franchise but calling some of his male co-stars “candy asses.”
“There’s no other franchise that gets my blood boiling more than this one,” Johnson shared in the post. “My female costars are always amazing and I love’em. My male costars, however, are a different story. Some conduct themselves as stand-up men and true professionals, while others don’t. The ones that don’t are too chicken shit to do anything about it anyway. Candy asses. When you watch this movie next April and it seems like I’m not acting in some of these scenes and my blood is legit boiling — you’re right.”
Later, this was confirmed to Rolling Stone as being about Diesel: “We have a fundamental difference in philosophies on how we approach moviemaking and collaborating,” Johnson said. The two went back and forth about each other during interviews over the years.
Diesel, who has been highly protective of the lucrative franchise admitted to giving Johnson a hard time on set and implied this was a tactic for his performance. “It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character,” Diesel told the magazine. “My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to be…I could give a lot of tough love. Not Felliniesque, but I would do anything I’d have to do in order to get performances in anything I’m producing.”
Then in 2021, two years after the huge success of his Hobbs vs. Shaw spinoff with Jason Statham, Johnson revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that there were no plans for his character to return to the franchise and reacted to those comments from Diesel: “I laughed and I laughed hard. I think everyone had a laugh at that. And I’ll leave it at that. And that I’ve wished them well. I wish them well on Fast 9. And I wish them the best of luck on Fast 10 and Fast 11 and the rest of the Fast & Furious movies they do that will be without me.”
Since then, the feud saw Johnson calling out DIesel’s “manipulation” and an announcement of a Hobbs spinoff movie. He put the feud to rest in 2023, saying: “Despite us having our differences, me and Vin, we’ve been like brothers for years, and despite our differences, when you lead with — number one, resolve — but also you think about the future and plans that are much bigger than ourselves.”
Johnson is returning to the franchise, but it’s unclear if that forthcoming film or the next film in the saga starring Diesel will be next. There are several films currently in development in the mainline saga.
With Sunday night’s comment, the beef and the barbs between the two may be back. Comments on X (formerly Twitter) following the Golden Globes moment ranged from dubbing it SOOOOOO LOADED!!!!!” to another user declaring, “VinDiesel saying hey to The Rock, is the kind of drama the #GoldenGlobes needed.”
For a full list of winners at the Globes, head here.
