The first of hopefully many Fast & Furious spinoffs is now available on home video, and to celebrate Hobbs & Shaw getting their own story – and vehicles to match – we traveled to England to get the most authentic Shaw experience possible.

Deckard Shaw began as a villain in the Fast series, played Jason Statham, but as the series went on we learned about his family and origins – revealing him to be more of an antihero. For Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Deckard must reluctantly team up with Luke Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) to take on a nemesis from his past.

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And to match is style and driving prowess, Deckard drives a McLaren 720s in the film, chosen due to Statham’s own personal interest and demand to drive it for this movie. McLaren agreed and become not only the provided of Deckard Shaw’s hero vehicle, but their headquarters (the McLaren Technology Centre) in Woking, United Kingdom because the lair of the antagonists in the movie.

Statham drove the McLaren 720S himself at the iconic Silverstone Circuit so, thanks to Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, we did as well. And afterward, in the cold winter morning, we also spoke with Hobbs & Shaw’s Vehicle Coordinator, Alex King about how they made movie magic with these vehicles.

And yes, I hit 240 km/h just a few laps in with no training and my first time on Silverstone!

Interview With Hobbs & Shaw Vehicle Coordinator Alex King

Screen Rant’s Rob Keyes: When you’re designing action set pieces involving a car like [the McLaren 720S] what’s the most challenging sequence to realize in live-action?

Alex King: If we look at the sequence in Hobbs & Shaw I think most people can probably say the one that stands out…

The Driving underneath the truck…

Alex King: Yeah, maybe [Laughs].

[Laughs]

Alex King: There are so many approaches to it but how do you achieve that? What do you do? And is it practical or is it CGI and part practical? How do you make it work? That one was probably the trickiest but we were going at it to make it work as close as possible.

And then we get to see Idris Elba’s character drive this super techy futuristic motorcycle.

Alex King: Yes.

How did you land on that vehicle design?

Alex King: We built about 15 bikes for Idris’ fleet. And quite late in, David Scheunemann, our [production] designer, and I met with Triumph and they were showing us some bikes. And David decided – along with our director, David Leitch, said let’s go down the line of Triumph and we went with a Speed Triple and we had to modify that to try to keep it in line with what had already been designed for Idris’ fleet. I think there’s a certain amount of elements from the bikes and vehicles we built that we put to the Speed Triple and made it its own.

Last question! If you could choose any car for you to be in a Fast & Furious movie, what would yours be?

Alex King: Well, now I’m on the spot surrounded by McLaren! It may be the new GT.

For us, it’d be the McLaren 600LT or McLaren 720s having seen and tested both at Silverstone – and later, seeing how they were built at McLaren HQ. Jason Statham is on to something with that choice…

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw Synopsis

For years, hulking lawman Luke Hobbs and lawless outcast Deckard Shaw have traded smack talk and body blows. But when cyber-genetically enhanced anarchist Brixton Lorr (Idris Elba; “Thor: Ragnarok,” “The Dark Tower”) gains control of an insidious bio-threat that could alter humanity forever, Hobbs and Shaw must partner up to bring down the only guy who might be badder than themselves. Joining the cast as Shaw’s sister Hattie, Vanessa Kirby (Mission: Impossible-Fallout, “The Crown”) “is convincing as a woman who can take care of herself” (Rafer Guzman, Newsday). Directed by David Leitch from a story by longtime Fast & Furious narrative architect Chris Morgan and a screenplay by Morgan and Drew Pearce (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Iron Man 3), Hobbs & Shaw is produced by Johnson, Statham, Morgan and Hiram Garcia (Skyscraper, Rampage).

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is available on Digital, 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand.

Key Release Dates
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  • Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)Release date: Aug 02, 2019
  • F9/Fast & Furious 9 (2021)Release date: Jun 25, 2021
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About The Author


Rob Keyes
(3400 Articles Published)

Rob Keyes manages content, business development, HR models, social media, strategic partnerships, and PR for Screen Rant and helps oversee its sister site, Comic Book Resources (CBR). You may know also him from various television and radio appearances covering the superhero beat, co-hosting the Screen Rant Underground and Total Geekall podcasts or founding and building Game Rant back in the day. Find Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes or @failcube and if you need to reach either site, he’s your guy rob [at] screenrant [dot] com.

Rob Keyes is Canadian, the longest serving member of Screen Rant, has a Masters Degree in Economics and degrees is marketing and computer science, is an Adjudicator for the Canadian Videogame Awards, and is the world’s best TIE Interceptor pilot. You can see and chat with Rob live in the evenings at twitch.tv/failcube or see his videos at youtube.com/failcube.

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