Vin Diesel REVEALS he had a 'strange feeling that Paul Walker had sent' John Cena to play Dom's brother in F9

During a recent appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Vin Diesel revealed how John Cena came about to star in F9.

By Karishma Shetty

Updated on Jun 24, 2021 | 10:03 PM IST | 1.8M

John Cena plays Dom's brother Jakob Torreto in F9

Vin Diesel, in a 2019 Instagram post, had thanked Paul Walker for sending John Cena to him for F9.

Vin Diesel is sharing his candid thoughts on the "magical" feeling he encountered which led to John Cena being cast as Dom's brother Jakob Torreto, also the main antagonist, in F9. During a recent appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Kelly Clarkson asked the 53-year-old actor how John ended up being a part of Fast & Furious 9.

"Obviously I'm multicultural. You could've cast anybody to be my brother. Anybody! (Kelly quips with a laugh, "I didn't even think of that, but, yes!" as Vin chuckles) Right? I mean, you could've cast anybody in the world to be my brother and it would be okay," Vin began before adding, "For two months before I went to filming, I created a shrine where I could do all the combat training, all the stunts and I had the charger there to simulate the garage to get into the Dom state of mind. The idea of the brother worked great on paper, but when the time came to cast it, anxiety. Who could you cast to be Dom's brother and 20 years into the game? And the audience knows our mythology so much. Who could you cast to play that? [Kelly agrees, saying, "People are so invested, yeah."]"

"And he [John Cena] comes into the shrine one morning. And I had this strange feeling, and if you look back on my Instagram, you'll see the post, cause I thanked Pablo because I had this strange feeling that Paul Walker had sent him," Diesel recounted emotionally referring to his late Fast & Furious co-star and best friend Paul Walker. An awestruck Kelly pondered, "Oh, you just had a feeling from, oh! That's magical," to which the Avengers: Endgame star agreed, "It's very magical."