Hobbs & Shaw : All you need to know about the Fast & Furious characters of Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham

The Fast and Furious spinoff, Hobbs & Shaw , releases in Indian theatres on 2 August. This time around, Dwayne Johnson’s grumpy Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham’s equally crabby Deckard Shaw will go head to head against an evil mercenary, who threatens to alter humanity forever. With every film, bigger names keep adding to the films’ star cast. Idris Elba plays the primary antagonist Brixton, while Hattie (Vanessa Kirby) lends a hand to Hobbs & Shaw. [caption id=“attachment_7092941” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A still from Hobbs & Shaw. Image from Twitter[/caption] The original Fast and the Furious films focused on a group of notorious automobile hijackers, who also loved to indulge in some illegal street racing on the side. It eventually became a heist action series, which incorporated the storylines that have not always just focused on action, but also value family and teamwork. People who want to spend their Friday night watching Hobbs & Shaw, but know nothing about the last eight Fast and the Furious films, need not worry. From the looks of the trailers, the film seems to have little to do with the original storyline. But, it does not hurt to have some information on the central characters. Hobbs was first introduced as an agent for the United States Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) in Fast Five (2011).  He believes that Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew killed Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents at the beginning of the film, when they try to steal a couple of cars from a moving train. He is successful in capturing them and takes them into custody for extradition but while on the way to the airport, his team is unfortunately killed by the Brazillian-Portuguese drug lord Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida). Later, Hobbs and Torretto became allies for a brief while, executing Reyes and stealing his money. Even though he has the chance to arrest Toretto, he gives them a 24 hour head start before beginning his search again. In Fast and Furious 6 (2013), he persuades the crew to get on-board a government mission, to bring down Owen Shaw (Luke Evans). He has a new sidekick, Riley Hicks (Gina Carano), who turns out to be a double agent. After a few intense fight sequences later, Hobbs helps Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) kill his double crossing partner with a harpoon gun. Owen ends up comatose, when he is thrown off a plane. The film ends on a somewhat happy note, with Toretto and Hobbs expressing their respect and trust for each other. Deckard Shaw, Owen’s older brother and a rogue intelligence agent, makes a mystery appearance in the end of Fast and Furious 6, when he deliberately crashes into Han Lue’s (Sung Kang) car in Tokyo, killing him on impact.  IGN notes that Fast Five focused on Hobbs, and Furious 7 gives some insight on Shaw’s origins. His character comes in contact first with Hobbs in this instalment, when he takes it on him to avenge his brother. After some twists and turns, he is sent to a maximum security prison. Fate of the Furious (2017), the last one to release before Hobbs & Shaw, really sees the two team up against a cyber-terrorist Cipher (Charlize Theron). Torreto’s crew is recruits by the DSS once again for another mission. However, Toretto switches sides and Hobbs is held accountable, for which he is also carted off to the same prison as Shaw. They escape prison and Mr Nobody offer them to help capture Cipher. The end sees Hobbs officially retire, and spend time with his daughter and family. Hobbs & Shaw is directed by Deadpool 2 helmer David Leitch.