The Fast & Furious franchise has no shortage of muscled-up action stars for Vin Diesel to clash with. As it turns out, they were planning to add Bloodsport and Kickboxer star Jean-Claude Van Damme to their roster before Diesel shut down the notion.
Van Damme revealed his near-casting in a feature with The Telegraph last week, telling the outlet that "they" (the producers?) wanted to bring him on board. "But Vin Diesel said, 'No, I don't want him,'" he said.
He didn't divulge any further details on the matter, so it's currently up in the air who he would've played, or why, exactly, Diesel was against the idea.
But, as always, the internet is speculating, and fans of the franchise brought plenty of theories to the table. Most commonly, people guess that, given the vague resemblance between Van Damme and John Cena, the former could've been in the cards to portray the brother of Diesel's character, Dom Toretto.
X (formerly Twitter) users have specifically jumped in to defend Van Damme, with the vast majority of commenters theorizing that Diesel might've felt threatened by the martial artist, and that he's "better off" not being involved with the franchise that many fans think has gone downhill in recent installments.
Van Damme revealed his near-casting in a feature with The Telegraph last week, telling the outlet that "they" (the producers?) wanted to bring him on board. "But Vin Diesel said, 'No, I don't want him,'" he said.
He didn't divulge any further details on the matter, so it's currently up in the air who he would've played, or why, exactly, Diesel was against the idea.
But, as always, the internet is speculating, and fans of the franchise brought plenty of theories to the table. Most commonly, people guess that, given the vague resemblance between Van Damme and John Cena, the former could've been in the cards to portray the brother of Diesel's character, Dom Toretto.
X (formerly Twitter) users have specifically jumped in to defend Van Damme, with the vast majority of commenters theorizing that Diesel might've felt threatened by the martial artist, and that he's "better off" not being involved with the franchise that many fans think has gone downhill in recent installments.