Who The Rock's Social Media Diss Was Really Targeted At

The Rock is throwing stones.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson recently took to Instagram to discuss the box office performance of his latest flick, Hobbs & Shaw. As of September 16th, 2019, the first-ever spin-off film in the Fast and Furious franchise has earned more than $740 million worldwide.

Johnson posted a screenshot of a Deadline article confirming Hobbs & Shaw is currently the best-earning non-superhero, non-Disney movie of the year, but he also fired shots at someone in the caption, which read:

"Assassins quietly play chess. Loud clowns play checkers. Thank you audiences worldwide for this incredible support and massive win. Very cool and we're grateful for the love."

One of the hashtags the actor added was, quote, "no candy asses", replacing the "e" with a clown emoji.

So who's on the receiving end of his diss? That would be none other than Tyrese Gibson, a Fast and Furious franchise mainstay with whom Johnson has been engaged in a drawn-out and often dramatic feud.

Back when Hobbs & Shaw was first starting to take shape, Johnson was apparently faced with a decision: go forward with that film, or prioritize the ninth Fast and Furious movie, originally slated to hit theaters on April 19th, 2019, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Ultimately, Johnson hopped on Hobbs & Shaw, and it wasn't long after the official announcement dropped that Fast 9 was pushed back by almost a year, moving to an April 10th, 2020 release date. Johnson later noted that he wouldn't appear in Fast and Furious 9 at all, according to The Drive.

It was an outcome that Gibson had desperately hoped wouldn't happen. Gibson publicly begged Johnson not to move ahead with Hobbs & Shaw, writing in a since-deleted Instagram post, in part,

"If you move forward with that Hobbs movie, you will have purposely ignored the heart to heart moment we had in my sprinter. I don't wanna hear from you until you remember what we talked about...Fast family is just that, a family. We don't fly solo...The Fast 9 release date has already been announced and we can't let our loyal fans or our loyal Fast and Furious fans down on any level from pushing the date...Didn't you see how HUGE [The Fate of the Furious] was? It's because we announced and KEPT our release date bro."

After Johnson chose Hobbs & Shaw and Fast 9 got delayed, tensions between Gibson and Johnson continued to flare.

Gibson blamed Johnson for the Fast 9 delay, slamming him as greedy and self-centered in an Instagram post that read, in part,

"Congratulations to The Rock and your brother-in-law aka 7 bucks producing partner for making the Fast and the Furious franchise about YOU...Fast family, right? Nah. It's about Team Dwayne."

Gibson later openly dissed Johnson again on Instagram, accusing him of using steroids and placing blame on the actor for making the personal troubles he was dealing with even worse. At the time, Gibson called Johnson a clown and a, quote, "candy ass bitch", two things Johnson referenced in his recent social media post.

In early August 2019, just a few days after Hobbs & Shaw opened in theaters on August 2nd, Gibson posted a screenshot of a news article that noted the film had posted the lowest opening weekend for a Fast and Furious franchise entry since the 2006 launch of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. The now-deleted post featured a caption that read, in part,

"Breaking up the family clearly doesn't have the value that one would assume it does…[Fast Family] has more value as the [Fast Family]…180 million dollar global opening on Hobbs and Shaw is NOT a win."

At this point, it doesn't seem like the back-and-forth bickering between Gibson and Johnson will stop any time soon. With Johnson out of Fast and Furious 9, at least the pair can avoid some potentially painfully awkward days on set.

#DwayneJohnson #TyreseGibson #HobbsAndShaw