First look at 'Hobbs and Shaw' as Jason Statham starts filming 'Fast and Furious' spin-off

Filming is officially underway on Hobbs & Shaw, the Fast & Furious spin-off starring Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Vanessa Kirby, and Idris Elba.

The Stath was photographed shooting a scene with director David Leitch in London’s Covent Garden area over the weekend. The Meg star was seen wearing a stylish suit climbing into an equally stylish supercar.

It looks like a McLaren car of some sort but, not being petrolheads, we don’t know the exact model. Feel free to put us right in the comments.

Statham plays Deckard Shaw opposite The Rock as Luke Hobbs in Hobbs & Shaw, the first spin-off of the hugely popular Fast franchise. Shaw is a former SAS soldier turned rogue who was the primary villain of Fast & Furious 7, while Hobbs is a Diplomatic Security Service Agent who has worked with (and against) Dominic Toretto’s crew since Fast & Furious 5.

It’s not yet clear what the plot of Hobbs & Shaw will be but director Leitch, whose previous credits include Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, and John Wick, said the film will be more “grounded” than other Fast films.

“It’s an origin story, in a sense,” Leitch told Collider while promoting Deadpool 2. “It’s not an origin story, but we’re starting a franchise. So we want it to be a little bit more grounded, a little bit more character-centric.”

Leitch has also suggested the film will veer away from the high-octane world of street racing seen in the eight films of the core series, suggesting it will be more of an espionage film, which seems appropriate for the velvet tuxedo sported by Statham in these new pics.

“We’re diving into [Hobbs & Shaw’s] world. I think we want to have our own take on the Fast universe. It will definitely have elements of the original DNA, but it is more drifting into Shaw’s spy world and Dwayne’s agent world and, obviously, we want to build on their relationship, their conflict, their banter. That chemistry that they have between them, that’s sort of what’s driving the movie.”

With Dwayne Johnson currently shooting Jungle Cruise alongside Emily Blunt and Jack Whitehall for Disney, we think this Covent Garden scene may just be part of the film’s pre-shoot ahead of principal photography.

Johnson revealed in May this year that sooting on Hobbs & Shaw would get underway in September, so we imagine DJ will join the shoot straight from Jungle Cruise. They don’t call him the hardest working man in showbiz for nothing.

UPDATE: The Rock has confirmed, via his Instagram, that he will begin shooting Hobbs & Shaw in two weeks time. The 46-year-old actor shared a behind-the-scenes photo from the shoot, showing Statham and the supercar, with a long caption that promised the film will “evolve the franchise in exciting and fresh new ways”.

The film was fast-tracked for production ahead of Fast & Furious 9, which was pushed back from a 2019 release window to 2020. It was this delay that kicked off the long-running feud between The Rock and Tyrese Gibson.

Hobbs & Shaw is scheduled to hit cinemas August, 2019.

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