Vin Diesel can be relied upon for three things: to hate The Rock with his whole heart, to say the word “family” approximately 105 times per Fast & Furious film, and to let slip more about his Marvel commitments than is probably wise. Now he’s guilty of the third on the list yet again — teasing a future for Groot beyond the conclusion of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Following James Gunn’s migration to DC, the Guardians don’t seem to be a priority for Marvel right now, although it would be a surprise if the studio retired such popular characters as Groot and Rocket Raccoon for good. Thankfully, Vol. 3 left both characters on the table for a potential return. In particular, Groot was portrayed as more muscular than ever — a development that Diesel spoiled years prior to the film’s release when he promised the coming of “Alpha Groot” way back in 2020.

So what’s next for Groot? We’re not sure we were supposed to know this yet, but it sure sounds like Diesel is in talks to reprise his role for a possible solo spin-off film.

“Marvel’s most anticipated movie”: Vin Diesel claims Marvel is making a surprising Guardians follow-up

Vin Diesel accurately guessed exactly what cinephiles everywhere were thinking in the wake of the Oscars when he took to Instagram to offer an update on all the projects he has in the works. “Anora this, The Brutalist that,” we were all saying. “Forget about them, what we want to know is when’s there gonna be another xXx film">get paid a seven-figure sum for saying three words again?

It’s been roughly a year and a half since Greta Gerwig first painted the town pink with Barbie, and following the film’s sensational acclaim and box office achievements, studio execs began lining up to figure out how to replicate it all.

What they concluded wasn’t that we needed more films that examine the least-navigated depths of human emotions, nor that we needed more films that spoke truth to less-championed perspectives. No, what they concluded was that we needed more films about toys. Luckily for them, Vin Diesel‘s Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots film was already on the docket, and we’ve finally gotten our first glimpse of the shape it could take.

In a recent Instagram post, the Fast & Furious leading man shared an image that looks a lot like a live-action, life-sized, militarized Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots ring, together with a caption reading “Childhood dreams coming to life…”

It’s the first real update we’ve gotten about the film since it was first announced in April 2021, when Mattel Films signed a deal with Universal Pictures and Diesel’s production company, One Race Films, to get it made. The toy itself launched in 1966, and is among Mattel’s most recognizable products.

The adaptation has been preemptively lambasted by doubters, who weren’t completely convinced that this was something more than soulless IP shilling, and who couldn’t help but draw comparisons to 2011’s Real Steel. For context, the film — helmed by Kevin McKeon and written by Ryan Engle — will follow “a father and son who form a bond with an advanced war machine,” per the official Mattel website. The machine in question is, of course, either the Red Rocker or Blue Bomber, and that description there could quite aptly summarize Real Steel as well.

All this talk of Vin Diesel and The Rock Em Sock Em Robots movies reminds me that Real Steel is actually pretty solid. Totally the kinda movie that should have gotten a Saturday morning cartoon tie in. pic.twitter.com/8BLiGhhwEG

— Caped-Joel Daly (@CapedJoel) April 19, 2021

Still, this cultural enterprise isn’t as cut and dry as that. It’s easy to look at any film based on a popular IP — especially one based on a toy rather than a story — and conclude that it’s just being mined for another “content film,” in a manner of speaking. But, it’s equally likely for that material to fall into the hands of competent-to-remarkable storytellers, who will then serve up a genuinely great film. Gerwig and Noah Baumbach proved that with Barbie, and the brain trust of Transformers One proved it again a year later.

The caveat to that, however, is that Vin Diesel is no such storyteller. All respect to his full-body commitment to the nonsense that surrounds Dominic Toretto, but this is simply not the man you rope into the proceedings when you want to accomplish some genuine storytelling. By contrast, Margot Robbie — who brought Barbie to life through her LuckyChap Entertainment label — will be bringing Monopoly and The Sims adaptations into the fray, and if we can interpret Barbie as an example of LuckyChap’s IP storytelling ambition, we ought to be very excited for whatever shape those movies end up taking.

This Instagram post, however, prophesizes the same sort of explosive volume that has epitomized the bulk of Diesel’s filmography, second only to limp and lazy narratives. Nevertheless, it would be absolutely wonderful to be proven wrong, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Vin Diesel‘s position in Hollywood is cemented, and even though his internet presence is undoubtedly goofy — from his bizarre tangents into making electronic music to inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to a Father’s Day dinner on Instagram — if you dig deep into his antics, you’ll find his heart is always in the right place. Nothing made this clearer than when he declared plans to bring his Fast & Furious franchise back to LA for the presumptive final installment.

When The Fast and The Furious first debuted in summer 2001, it arrived with low expectations — a modest-budget film starring semi-established actors. The niche subject matter of street racing wasn’t considered Hollywood gold. Yet, Vin Diesel led a group of charismatic actors, winning fans over with a genuine portrayal of brotherhood and — of course — “family.” Over the years, the franchise has evolved from street racing to space travel, from Japan to Brazil, from stealing DVD players to stopping nuclear warfare. As the 24-year saga nears its conclusion, Diesel has flirted with the idea of returning the franchise to its roots. And it seems tragedy was fate’s way of ensuring he and his team finally return to LA.

Diesel recently took to Instagram, revealing that the devastating LA wildfires were what pushed him to make the decision to bring the final part of the Fast saga home. In his heartfelt post, Diesel shared that the idea originated from his on-screen sister, Jordana Brewster, who asked him to see if Universal could bring the final installment back to LA, as the city “needs it now more than ever.”

The cast’s relationships are almost as complicated as the numbering system of the sequels. Dwayne Johnson has had a falling out with Diesel, and Tyrese has had his own issues with Johnson. However, for the 11th installment (12th, if you count the Hobbs & Shaw spin-off), officially titled Fast X: Part 2, it seems that everyone is ready to put their feuds aside and focus on delivering a finale that fans who’ve stuck with them through thick and thin truly deserve.

Vin Diesel’s decision to return the franchise to LA, especially at a time when the city needs a much-needed injection of capital, is a testament to his character. It’s easy to dismiss this gesture or debate how the wildfire situation has been handled, but witnessing people do whatever they can in the face of tragedy will always be moving.

As for the franchise, if the goal is to return to basics, we can only hope to see some form of racing in the final installment — after all, they owe us that much. According to Diesel’s post, the film has already shot a significant portion of the final chapter, with only a small part left that he hopes will be shot in LA. This might end up being a more emotional send-off than anyone expected, and given how well they handled Paul Walker’s farewell, we have hope for this one.

Diesel has announced that Fast X: Part 2 is expected to hit theaters in March 2026.

Vin Diesel‘s appearance on stage at the Golden Globes mostly got people talking thanks to his catty “hey Dwayne” to The Rock, which hinted that the two Fast & Furious stars’ much-vaunted rivalry might not be as forgiven as we had been led to believe. Honestly, though, Vin seemed more keen to start some new beef than reheat an old one — forget Diesel vs. Dwayne, let’s talk Groot vs. Glinda.

The Guardians of the Galaxy star had the job of revealing the winner of the Outstanding Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category, and the distinct tutting sound he made before announcing that it was Wicked definitely didn’t go unnoticed by lovers of the barnstorming musical blockbuster. In case you missed the moment on the night, here it is.

Everyone knows it’s bad form to undercut someone’s well-earned win at an awards show — well, everyone but Kanye West at the MTV Awards in 2009 — so Diesel expressing his personal dislike of the Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo vehicle in this way is leaving fans fuming. One Wicked fan blasted him for being “unprofessional,” snapping, “lol what a loser.”

A word of warning, Vin: don’t anger the former theater kids. They are legion.

For those bitter that Wicked came out of the Golden Globes with crumbs, Diesel’s dismissive reaction was the final insult.

Suddenly, Wicked Nation are all The Rock fans.

Vin must really hate Wicked, though. As one tweeter noted, “Why is Vin Diesel showing more emotion in his despise for #Wicked winning than in any of his movie appearances over the last 10 years">did she fly a car in space?”

Even so, showing the barest modicum of respect for the work of fellow artists during their big moment really isn’t too much to ask for. In fact, it’s the absolute minimum anyone hired to present at one of these events should offer. As Wicked itself preaches, we have much more in common than what separates us. Everyone in attendance at California’s Beverly Hilton on Sunday night was ionate about filmmaking and keeping cinema alive. They’re all on the same side, they’re all family. And to quote Vin Diesel’s own Dominic Toretto, it’s all about family.

Vin Diesel appeared to revive his years-old beef with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson during the Golden Globes, but the moment wasn’t so much reconciliatory as it was… extremely awkward.

Diesel appeared at the star-studded awards ceremony to present the trophy for cinematic and box office achievement. While Wicked rightfully got its due, viewers couldn’t help but notice the “unadulterated loathing” that permeated Diesel’s interaction with Johnson, whom he starred opposite in The Fast and Furious franchise. Taking a pause (or, given the winner, “holding space”) at the start of his presenter speech, Diesel gave a bizarre shout out to Johnson, whose reaction was caught as the camera panned to the Moana star.

Johnson was seen smiling awkwardly, as a few scarce laughs trickled throughout the audience. To be fair, one must have an understanding of the two actors’ tumultuous history for the moment to truly land, but even then it feels like a somewhat stale joke since Diesel and Johnson had ostensibly squashed their beef. For context, the feud dates back to 2016, when Johnson called out an unnamed Fast co-star as “chicken s**t” and a “candy a**” in an Instagram post. 

Later, Diesel revealed himself to be the subject of that roast when explaining in an interview that, as a producer of the franchise, he had used a “tough love” approach to get the best work out of Johnson. While it would be useful for Diesel to that this is The Fast and The Furious and is therefore not worthy of this Daniel Day Lewis-like approach to acting, he nonetheless cited his producer strategy as the source of their beef. It was squashed, however, in 2023, when Johnson shocked audiences by appearing as his character, Luke Hobbs, in the mid-credits scene of Fast X. 

Since then, all appeared to be well in the Fast universe, with both Johnson and Diesel set to appear in what might as well be the eleven-hundredth installment, next year’s Fast XI (yep, we’ve moved to Roman numerals, because there’s simply not enough regular digits). Perhaps it was the staleness of the feud, or the fact that Diesel hasn’t appeared in a film this year, which made his Golden Globes moment read a little cringe for viewers. 

“You could literally see The Rock’s hatred towards Vin Diesel in that shot,” one wrote on X, with another adding that they got to see “what The Rock looks like when he’s fantasizing about tearing Vin Diesel in half.” Others used a series of teeth-baring emojis to sum up the awkward exchange, or expressed excitement that they “thought some s*** was gonna pop off” in the vein of Chris Rock and Will Smith. “This is the kind of drama the Golden Globes needed,” a fourth onlooker wrote. 

While it briefly pulled focus, the interaction was one of multiple talked-about moments at the ceremony, from Kieran Culkin’s deserved win for A Real Pain to Andrew Garfield’s win for being, well, Andrew Garfield. We also got an appearance from the respective winners of the Glen Powell and Timothée Chalamet lookalike contests (yep, you read that right), and celebrated prize-getters like Demi Moore (for The Substance), Emilia Pérez (for best musical or comedy) and Sebastian Stan (for A Different Man).

Vin Diesel is an enigma. He arrived as a fully formed screen presence. He simply was. The name Vin Diesel perfectly encapsulates his appeal: a little silly, a lot of cool, and ambiguity that makes it unclear who or what this guy is really about.

Vin Diesel is best known for playing car thief Dominic Toretto in the Fast and Furious franchise. A franchise in which he has Cuban cousins, a half Brazilian child, and was portrayed, in flashbacks, by a Kiwi actor who shares a stage name: Vin(nie) Bennett. What’s the deal? What is Diesel’s ethnicity, and why is it so hard to pin down?

Let’s delve into the actor’s ethnic background, and determine why it’s befuddled so many fans.

Vin Diesel considers himself a person of color

Vin Diesel’s mother, Delora Vincent, is of English, German, Irish and Scottish descent. The actor credits his mother with being his anchor, and she has accompanied the actor on multiple red carpets. Diesel’s stepfather, Irving Vincent, is of African American descent, and it is because of Irving that the actor considers himself to be a person of color.

Diesel clarified the way he viewed himself, ethnically, speaking, during a 2014 interview with The Guardian. He stated that the experiences and values that Irving Vincent provided him as a child, and into adulthood, was paramount in shaping his cultural identity:

I’m definitely a person of color. The man who raised me was a black man, and he made me who I am and taught me who I am.

The actor is unsure of his father’s ethnicity

The confusion over Vin Diesel’s ethnicity partially stems from his own confusion. The actor told IMDb that he never got a chance to meet his biological father, and therefore isn’t sure what his ethnic makeup is. He merely quoted his mother, who has said that the actor has “connections to many different cultures.”

The actor also invoked the familial melting pots that are depicted in the Fast and Furious and Guardians of the Galaxy franchises in which he stars. He told the outlet how important family values are to him, and how they inform the stories he likes to tell. At the end of the day, he opines, ethnicity is irrelevant. “On a deep[er] level,” he noted. “We’re dealing with species at this point. We’ve gone beyond.”

When Joey Graziadei was interrupted as he was about to decide which of his final four women to keep around in season 28 of The Bachelor, no one was surprised that is was courtesy of Maria Georgas.

She was the one hanging on by a thread thanks to her own inability to tell Joey that she was falling for him. She knew it. She expressed it to the cameras, but not to Joey. She knew the other women were likely more expressive to him, and it could make him more confident in his relationships with them than with her. She worried it would result in her being sent home. Thus, just before Joey began the rose ceremony, Maria asked to speak with him alone.

That’s when she finally expressed that she was falling in love with him — even though it may have been too little, too late. Though it did make Joey think about it further before returning to the rose ceremony, her words were not enough to change his mind. He sent her home to be back with her Beatles-like dad.

This would be the end of Maria’s story on the show, and the end of her making questionable decisions for the season, and the end of having her stuck in awkward situations, thanks to others misunderstanding her. It would also be the end of viewers learning more about her — unless, of course, there was one more tidbit that wasn’t revealed.

Fans of the show may have noticed that during one episode earlier this season it was noted that Maria was in a movie called The Pacifier. That seemed interesting, but we learned nothing else about it. So, I did some digging and, amongst other things, found it to be her only movie credit.

The Pacifier was released in 2005, when Maria was just 11 years old. The Disney film stars Vin Diesel in an odd plot that quickly leads to him basically being a live-in babysitter for his late friend’s kids. It received mostly negative reviews, though it did extremely well at the box office.

In the movie, there is what some people would consider an unnecessary scene when Vin Diesel gets out of the shower, puts just a towel on to cover his lower half, walks out to the kitchen still with only a towel covering him from waist down, and eventually realizes that one of the kids he babysits, a girl of about 11 years old, has her friends over and they all see him half naked, which earns them a chuckle. One of those friends of the girl is played by Maria Georgas.

The girls are a part of what is basically a Girl Scout type of group named the Fireflies. In the movie, they even beat up some boys in one scene, though Maria herself doesn’t show off any fighting skills.

Now that she can add The Bachelor to her IMDB credits, maybe we’ll see more of Maria somewhere, though one would assume the most likely next step to be within The Bachelor franchise as either the next Bachelorette or as one of beach-goers in Bachelor in Paradise.

One thing few people want to see, however, is a sequel to The Pacifier.

Vin Diesel has been a Hollywood mainstay for years, but the star is elusive with the media. After his breakout role as a toy fair performer for Street Sharks (1994), Diesel appeared in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan before conquering the early Aughts with a slew of action films like XXX and The Fast and the Furious.  

Despite his fame and success, Diesel has pushed to keep his public and personal personas separate for the sake of his family, which includes his ever-elusive twin brother, Paul Vincent.

Who is Vin Diesel’s twin brother?

Vin Diesel, born Mark Sinclair, and his fraternal twin Paul Vincent, were born just a few minutes apart on July 18, 1967. Their biological father was never in the picture, but their mother married their stepfather (though Deisel only refers to him as dad), Irving H. Vincent, who raised the boys as his own. The I am Groot star even took the first part of his stage name in honor of his father, who as proudly shared by Diesel, shaped him into the man and actor that he is.   

Diesel is very protective of his family, and while he shares stories of his children and his partner, Paloma Jimenez, he rarely talks about his brothers and sisters. More than a year after Paul Walker’s tragic 2013 death, Diesel shared a photo of “the two Pauls.” In 2023, Diesel gave his twin another shout-out, saying, “I am so very proud and incredibly grateful to be a part of this epic journey.”

Like his brother, Paul Vincent has worked in Hollywood. His IMDB profile lists him as a sound designer for 1995’s Multi-Facial, but he has no other credits to his name.

Content advisory: This article mentions sexual assault. Please take care while reading.

In Dec. 2023, actor Vin Diesel was accused by a former assistant of sexual battery and creating a hostile work environment in a civil suit filed in a Los Angeles court — but has Diesel been linked to anything like that before?

According to CNN, Diesel’s 2023 allegations date from 2010, when The Fast & the Furious star’s former assistant, Asta Jonasson, said Diesel sexually assaulted her, but she escaped. According to Jonasson, she was terminated from her job after the alleged assault took place. Also named in the civil suit are Diesel’s company, One Race Productions, and Diesel’s sister, Samantha Vincent, who reportedly fired Jonasson after the assault happened.

In addition to sexual battery and creating a hostile work environment, Jonasson’s suit lists negligent supervision and wrongful termination. Jonasson was also propositioned by another One Race Productions supervisor while working for the company, her suit said.

Through his attorney, Diesel denied Jonasson’s allegations. Jonasson seeks a $10,000 civil penalty for each claim made in the suit and other unspecified punitive damages.

Does Vin Diesel have a criminal record?

Before Asta Jonasson’s civil suit, Vin Diesel had no criminal record, nor had he been publicly accused of sexual assault, battery, or harassment. In 2015, Elite Daily reported that Diesel’s only known near run-in with the law happened when he was a teenager, when Diesel and a group of friends broke into a theater to vandalize the space. A play director caught the young men, gave them a script, and cast them in a show, a moment Diesel credits with launching his acting career.

According to Jonasson, she didn’t report the incident in 2010 because she had signed a non-disclosure agreement with Diesel’s company when she was hired. Jonasson’s civil suit comes within the one-year window in California allowing sexual assault cases to be tried after the statute of limitations has expired, part of California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up ability Act legislation ed in 2022, according to Variety. Notably, for a suit like Jonasson’s suit to be considered under the law, the defendant must have tried to suppress or cover up similar allegations in the past.

In response to Jonasson’s civil suit, Bryan Freedman, Diesel’s attorney, said in a statement, “Vin Diesel categorically denies this claim in its entirety. This is the first he has ever heard about this more than 13-year-old claim made by a purportedly 9-day employee. There is clear evidence which completely refutes these outlandish allegations.”

In a statement, Jonasson’s attorney told CNN, “No one is too famous or powerful to evade justice … We hope [Jonasson’s] courageous decision to come forward helps create lasting change and empowers other survivors.”

If you know someone suffering from sexual violence,  RAINN or the National Sexual Abuse Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.

In 2022, someone posted on Reddit they ed action star Vin Diesel coming out as gay, referring to the memory as a “Mandela Effect,” or a strong memory that turns out not to be true — so what’s the truth about Diesel’s sexuality?

The answer to that question, of course, is nobody’s business. It would, however, make headlines if an action star of Diesel’s stature were to come out. In response to the Reddit query, someone commented, “I thought he was gay, too? I it as well.” So, is there a Mandela Effect at play?

With all that in mind, let’s look at what’s known about Mr. Diesel’s sexuality and get to the bottom of this Diesel-related Mandala Effect mystery.

(In case you’re not aware, so-called Mandela Effects are named after how some people collectively South African leader Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the `80s, when Mandela died a free man in 2013.)

Diesel’s sexuality rumors, explained

Rumors that Vin Diesel is gay have been around for about as long as The Fast and the Furious star has been famous. The voice of Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy was rarely seen with women, and the only woman he was romantically linked with in the press at one point was Furious costar Michelle Rodriguez around 2001.

In 2006, Diesel tried to put the rumors to rest when he told Towleroad that his personal life was off-limits.

“I’m not gonna put it out there on a magazine cover like some other actors. I come from the Harrison Ford, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino code of silence. I’m not gonna do that,” Diesel said. Diesel just preferred to date in “Europe,” he added (via Towleroad).

Some responding to the 2022 Reddit post regarding Diesel’s sexuality pointed out that those comments may have caused the mix-up in some people’s memory, because he never directly addressed the matter.

There’s no evidence Diesel’s gay

Whether Vin Diesel has ever been in a same-sex relationship may never be known. What is known is that he’s been in a long-term relationship with Mexican model Paloma Jimenez. They have three children.

To explain why some people so strongly Diesel came out, one person posted on Reddit:

“Maybe you’re thinking of Wentworth Miller, another actor who’s done a lot of genre fare and looks kind of like Vin Deisel if you squint your eyes. He was Scofield on Prison Break and Leonard Snart/Captain Cold in Legends of Tomorrow. He came out of the closet in 2013 after previously denying he was gay.”

Interest in Diesel’s private life peaked in late 2023 when a former assistant accused the Hollywood star of sexual battery in a lawsuit, according to Vanity Fair.

Marvel took a risk when it introduced Guardians of the Galaxy into the wider MCU, but it’s safe to say it paid off — literally. Just ask Vin Diesel‘s bank .

In the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and his band of galactic outlaw friends universally won over audiences with their sarcasm, snark, and sibling squabbles, but none of them stole hearts quite as easily as Groot, the Flora colossus played by the Buff and the Furious Vin Diesel. The character’s trisyllable vocabulary consisted solely of “I am Groot” (or on one memorable occasion, “We are Groot”) but his evolution from adult to baby to adult again was one of the franchise’s most fulfilling.

It’s a dream job. You walk into work, sidle on up next to a microphone, and say “I am Groot” over and over again. Then, you walk away with a sizeable paycheck that would make most actors’ eyes water. Of course, Diesel also had to say his line in multiple languages, inflections, and octaves, but hey, it’s a solid gig no matter which way you spin it.

How many times has Vin Diesel played Groot?

Diesel voiced Groot in a total of seven Marvel movies and two seasons of his solo Disney Plus series: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), Guardians of the Galaxy: Holiday Special (2022), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. (2023), and I Am Groot seasons 1 and 2 (2022 – 2023).

Originality can die a slow painful death when an actor is contracted to play the same character multiple times over for years on end, but luckily for Diesel, he had the rare opportunity of playing four different versions of the trisyllabic tree: Adult Groot, Baby Groot, Teenage Groot, and a Buff Young Man Groot.

Now before you suggest Diesel put hardly any work into the middle years of Groot’s life, James Gunn busted that myth when he revealed that Diesel’s voice was hardly modified in post-production for Baby Groot. Most of it is entirely Diesel. In speaking with Entertainment Weekly, he even doted on Diesel’s acting range.

“Listen, yeah, Vin’s an actor! One of the reasons I was interested in working with Vin is I like Vin’s early [work], when I first saw Vin come around in movies like Boiler Room. He’s a real actor! He’s become this sort of larger-than-life action figure. But he’s actually are a real actor who can do a lot of different things. I’d love to see him take on some more difficult roles in his career, because I think he’s more than capable of doing that.”

Vin Diesel’s salary for playing Groot

You’re probably familiar with the rumor that Vin Diesel was paid $54.5 million for voicing Groot across a majority of his MCU appearances. It turns out that that is categorically false, as proven by James Gunn who said the rumor was “not true” in a response to one fan’s incredulous post on X (formally known as Twitter).

For years, it was assumed Diesel made roughly $13 million per appearance as the Flora colossus (at least in the films), but if that’s not true, then how much did he actually make? The truth is we don’t know. The information is not public record. We can only estimate based on his co-workers’ alleged salaries and Diesel’s history of receiving hefty paychecks.

As of this writing, Diesel has a net worth of $225 million and has brought in more than $7 billion at the global box office thanks to both his Marvel films and his Fast and Furious ones. In 2017 alone he made $54 million. He’s also been reported to have made $20 million upfront for F9.

Taking all that into , it’s not unreasonable to assume he made at least $13 million across all his appearances as Groot in both front-end and back-end deals. If anything, that feels conservative, especially given his star power and the nearly $2.5 million all three Guardians movies made at the global box office. He may not have made $54.5 million, but he’s not necessarily hurting for money, is he?

With 10 mainline installments in the can, the core cast of the Fast & Furious franchise has swelled to a ridiculous levels, matters that aren’t helped by pretty much any major figure to have either been killed or presumed dead returning from beyond the grave.

If they don’t, then you can expect a family member that’s never been mentioned before to pop up in their stead as a surrogate of sorts, but producer and all-round figurehead Vin Diesel apparently draws the line somewhere when it comes to new recruits after Jean-Claude Van Damme claimed that he was actively blocked from boarding the series by its chrome-domed commander-in-chief.

Speaking to The Telegraph, the eccentric and often-controversial veteran that’s been sued for allegedly lying about his martial arts prowess, got into a fight for dating the estranged wife of his former bodyguard, and rescued a three-month old chihuahua from being euthanized as part of a dispute between Norway and Bulgaria at various points in his career was adamant he’d been offered a part before Diesel shut it down.

His side of the story extends to “They want me in Fast and Furious…But Vin Diesel said, ‘No, I don’t want him,'” but without either the actor who reportedly denied his request or studio Universal addressing the matter, it’s Van Damme’s word against Diesel’s. That being said, it’s not as if he hasn’t had any issues with heavyweights of the action genre before, even if those fences have been mended for the sake of making money.